16/05: 109 people, including 10 women and eight children, in distress North of Al Khums

Verified

  In Distress   Missing

17.05.2021 / 17:22 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – May 16th 2021

Case name: 2021_05_16-CM437

Situation: 62 people rescued to land by local fisher, 47 people missing at sea due to non-intervention

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of Case

In the early afternoon of May 16th Alarm Phone was alerted to a deflating rubber boat some 50km North of Al Khums carrying 109 people by a family member. We forwarded the information to authorities via e-mail at 14.07 CEST. At the time of the alert, the boat had started to deflate and water was entering, while the phone on board was out of battery. Throughout the day we tried to contact authorities via telephone, to no avail. Neither were we able to establish direct contact to the people in distress at sea. In the afternoon of May 17th the relative who alerted us to the distress case related that dozens of people had gone overboard and are missing at sea; 62 people were rescued by a local fisher and brought to shore safely.

Tweets:

May 16th

16.00 CEST

17.23 CEST

21.44 CEST

May 17th

08.28 CEST

16.49 CEST
Last update: 16:49 Dec 05, 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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