19/02 – Approx. 120 travelers in distress off Libya. Rescue to Sicily by supply vessel, 41 dead.

20.02.2021 / 21:48 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th of February 2021

Case name: 2021_02_19-CM369
Situation: Approximately 120 travelers (5 women, 2 pregnant) started from Libya. Picked up by the supply vessel Vos Triton and brought to Sicily. 41 travelers died before and during the rescue.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:
On the 19th of February 2021 at 12:49h CET, the Alarm Phone received an SMS with a GPS location in the Libyan Search and Rescue (SAR) zone. Our shift team could not get through to the sender of the message to ask for details. At 16:15h CET, finally we could talk to the people who had sent the SMS. They said there were around 120 people, among them five women (two pregnant) in a white rubber boat. They reported that water was entering their boat, they were panicking and feared to sink. They passed us their current GPS location and asked us to alert the authorities. Our shift team called the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Rome at 16:45h CET and passed them all the information. We also called the so-called Libyan coastguard. At 16:53h CET, we sent an e-mail about the distress case to all competent authorities and to the company of the supply ship Vos Triton, which was in the vicinity of the travelers’ boat. At 17:20h CET, we could talk to the travelers again. From then on, they called us regularly, but the connection was too bad to communicate. At 18:42h CET, we received a new GPS location from them. At 20:04h CET, our shift team called the emergency number of the shipping company of the Vos Triton. The officer stated not to be in charge and that they were waiting for instructions from the government. At 20:36h CET, the travelers reported to see a vessel, and we could track the Vos Triton online and observed that it was close to the travelers’ location. During the night, our shift team could not re-establish the contact to the travelers. The next morning, 20th of February, at 08:34h CET, our shift team called the MRCC Rome. They refused to share information about the fate of the travelers. At 09:20h CET, the company of the Vos Triton told us that the vessel was still in the vicinity of the travelers and involved in the rescue operation. We could still not get through to the travelers. At 13:17h CET, we got the information from the so-called Libyan coast guard that a migrants’ boat had been picked up by the Vos Triton during the night. Our shift team assumed that these were the travelers who had called the Alarm Phone. The rescued of the Vos Triton were brought to Sicily.
Later, the rescued reported that eight people died before the rescue and another 33 people dies during the rescue. Among them a mother of a newborn child.

Twitter chronology:
19.02.2021, 17:56h CET https://mobile.twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1362808258680020996

20.02.2021, 17:59h CET https://mobile.twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1363171441236148226

Twitter chronology from Sea Watch:
20.02., 21:23h CET https://twitter.com/seawatch_intl/status/1363222880348217345
20.02., 21:24h CET https://twitter.com/seawatch_intl/status/1363223066298507267
22.02., 17:54h CET https://twitter.com/seawatch_intl/status/1363894990947176452
22.02., 17:55h CET https://twitter.com/seawatch_intl/status/1363895292702171146
22.02., 17 :57h CET https://twitter.com/seawatch_intl/status/1363895652678303750
24.02. 18:43h CET https://twitter.com/seawatch_intl/status/1364631995725316096
24.02., 18:44h CET https://twitter.com/seawatch_intl/status/1364632419308027907

Last update: 22:34 Jun 01, 2021

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