05/02 Around 30 people picked up by the so-called Libyan coastguard

06.02.2021 / 06:54 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 5th February 2021
Case name: 2021_02_05-CM361
Situation: ~30 people picked up by the so-called Libyan coastguard
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:
At around about 11:00h CET on 5 February 21 contacted by a group of about 30 travellers. They had left Zuwara in Libya, but there boat
had stalled when they were still fairly close to the Libyan coast. Water was entering the boat and they asked us to try to contact the
so-called Libyan coastguard. We sent an email to MRCC Rome and every email address that we had for the apparent coastguard of Libya. We
try to follow up the email with a phone call, but so-calledcoastguard were not answering their so-called phone numbers.

At 11:40h we were able to contact a commander in the so-called Coast Guard on his personal phone. At 12:30 the commander promised us that he was on his way on his European funded vessel. We made contact with the boat at 13:30h but the connection was too poor to receive or relay information. We continued to try to reach the boat, but we were not able to.

At 14:50 concluded that the boat had probably been intercepted and put out the following target="_blank">tweet:
SOS! ~30 people in distress off Libya!
Yet another group in distress on a rubber boat reached out to us today. The approximately 30 people told us that water was entering their boat. Contact was cut and we believe that they are currently being intercepted. Libya is not safe!

Credibility:

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