02/04: 60 people departed in Sabratha, reached Lampedusa after long non-assistance of Malta and Italy

03.04.2021 / 09:27 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd of April 2021

Case name: 2021_04_02-CM401

Situation: 60 people departed from Sabratha in the evening of 31st March and were in severe distress for hours before they reached Lampedusa

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:

At 09:11h CEST on 2nd of April 2021 the Alarm Phone hotline got called by a satelite phone. The 60 travellers, including 10 women and 5 children, stated to be in a distress situation, they had no drinking water left and some people were sea sick. They transferred a GPS position and asked for urgent help. We informed authorities and the NGO Sea-Watch at 09:53h CEST and made the case publish on Twitter. Whenever we received another GPS position we immediately shared the information with authorities in Malta and Italy and with Sea-Watch. At 11:55h CEST the travellers told us to have seen an air plane and later Sea-Watch’s civilian reconnaissance aircraft Moonbird reported to have spotted a grey wooden boat with around 80 passengers. At 13:28h CEST the situation got tense as waves were high and water was entering. Although Moonbird spotted the travellers again on 17:42h CEST and reported to the authorities that the boat is unable to navigate hours later there was still no rescue in sight. The whole evening the Alarm Phone members phoned the authorities to make sure rescue will come, but Italy denied responsibility and Malta wasn’t eager to give information. In the night to 3rd April the travellers called every hour to give GPS positions to us which was relayed to all authorities. At 04:56h we had the last contact to them. Only in the evening of 3rd April we could confirm that the travellers reached Lampedusa.

Twitter chronology

2nd April 2021
10:32h CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1377901471946174467
Last update: 20:37 Aug 28, 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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