23/01: Around 55 people in distress in the Central Med, fate unclear

24.01.2021 / 12:22 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 23rd January 2021

Case name: 20210123-CM350

Situation: Alarm Phone alerted by fishermen to around 55 travellers in distress in the Central Med, their fate remains unclear.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary In the night of Saturday the 23rd of January, the Alarm Phone shift team received a message from a fisherman who alerted us to a boat of 55 travellers in distress on a rubber boat. The fisherman had spotted the boat at around 11.30h CET on the 22nd, where the travellers had been around 50 km north of Al Khoms. We were not able to obtain sufficient information about the boat or establish direct contact, but in the morning at 09.23h CET we sent an email to all relevant authorities with the information we had. During the day we tried to find more information about the travellers and their whereabouts, but we did not succeed in this. In the evening, at 18.28h CET and again at 20.40h CET we called the Italian coastguard, but they were not willing to give us any information about ongoing search and rescue efforts. The following day we kept trying to contact the fishermen who had alerted us to the boat, but we did not manage to reach them. On the 25th and 26th of January we contacted the so-called Libyan coastguard several times asking for news about the travellers, but they told us that they had not intercepted any boats matching our description. As we still did not have sufficient information about the travellers, we were forced to close the case without knowing what happened to the travellers. We hope that they somehow made it back to Libya safely on their own and that they have not become some of the many invisible victims of the violent European border regime.
Last update: 13:00 Apr 29, 2021
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • Border police patrols
     
    While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
  • Coastal radars
     
    Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
  • Exclusive Economic Zone
     
    Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
  • Frontex operations
     
    Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
  • Mobile phone coverage
     
    Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
  • Oil and gas platforms
     
    Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
  • Search and Rescue Zone
     
    An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
  • Territorial Waters
     
    A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans

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