18/03: 77 travellers in distress in the Central Med, fate unknown

19.03.2021 / 10:40 / Central Mediterranean Sea

b>Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 18th March 2021
Case name: 2021_03_18-CM384
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to one boat with 77 travellers in distress, fate unknown
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case:
In the night of Thursday the 18th of March, the Alarm Phone shift team received a message, alerting us to a rubber boat in distress, carrying around 77 travellers, including nine women and eight children. The boat had left from Garabuli, and we were informed that they had been around 22 nm off the coast the previous evening. According to a relative of the travellers, the engine of the boat was still working but that water was entering and the travellers were panicking. The relative had tried to alert the so-called Libyan coastguard, but had not managed to reach them. Unfortunately, we were not able to get a phone number of the travellers.
At 08.10 CET, after having gathered the relevant information, we alerted the Italian, Maltese and Libyan rescue authorities, together with UNHCR and the NGO Pilotes Volontaires via email.
We stayed in touch with the relative, but were not able to obtain any more information, and the relative was never able to tell us whether the travellers had reached land.
The following day, as we had no means of reaching the travellers directly and were not able to get information from other sources, we decided to close the case. We hope the travellers made it to safety!

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