09/05: a boat coming from Zawiya, carrying 55 people, may have reached Lampedusa

10.05.2021 / 12:15 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 5th of May 2021

Case name: 2021_05_05-CM426
Situation: a boat with 55 travellers, started from Zawiya, Libya, people got injured by gasoline burning and hopefully made it to Lampedusa
Status of WTM Investigation: open
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:
In the morning of May 5th, Alarm Phone was called by a relative of a person, who was in a boat departing from Zawiya, Libya about two days ago. When we called the people on board, they told us that their engine was working slowly, but there was not much gasoline left. Also, five people were injured due to burning from gasoline. One of them was unconscious.

We informed authorities and NGO’s via Email at 06:20 CEST about the boat and gave them their contact information as well as the GPS position. We tried to call Armed Forces Malta and RCC Malta on different numbers, but they were not reachable. The boat was already in Maltese SAR zone, so it was their responsibility to rescue them.

At 08:16 CEST and 09:30 CEST we sent Emails to the authorities and NGO’s with updated GPS positions and informing them about the situation of the travellers, which was very bad, since they had been at sea for two and a half days without food and water and the injured people needed treatment.
We tried to call RCC Malta and the Maltese Joint Operation Center on different numbers throughout the whole morning and early afternoon, but they never picked up the phone. Is this a failure of their emergency numbers, or a refusal to take responsibility for distress calls? Either way, consequences may be fatal.

At 14:27 CEST we sent yet another Email to authorities and NGO’s, telling them, that we have not been able to re-establish contact to the 55 people on board since 09:30 CEST this morning and we were fearing the worst. We also sent the Mail to nearby merchant vessel companies.
We where informed about various rescue operations and landings in Lampedusa this day, but we can not be sure that the boat, we were in contact with, was one of them. We truly hope so and we stand in solidarity with them and their families!

Twitter chronology:
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1391263538451296259?s=09
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1391280260386328581?s=09
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1391369985822449665?s=20

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