25/04: Boat in distress in the Central Med drifted back to Libya

26.04.2021 / 18:29 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 25th April 2021
Case name: 2021_04_25-CM408
Situation: Around 80 people in distress in the Central Med drifted back to Libya after their engine fell overboard.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean
Summary of the case: On Sunday the 25th of April in the morning the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea, carrying around 80 travellers. The boat had left the same morning at around 5am from Zuwara. The travellers told us that their engine had fallen overboard and that petrol had leaked into the boat, resulting in severe burns. Further, they told us that water was entering their boat and that they feared that they would drown. We were not able to get their GPS position, but they told us that they could see land and that they were close to the border between Libya and Tunisia.
At 11.08 CEST we sent an email to the relevant authorities alerting them to the distress of the travellers. At 11.30 CEST a relative told us that the travellers were panicking and had become unreachable. At 11.55 CEST the relative informed us that the travellers had made it back to land. This was later confirmed directly by one of the travellers who told us that the waves had brought their boats back to the coast.

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