23/05: 14 people in distress in the Central Med intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard

24.05.2021 / 20:36 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 23rd May 2021
Case name: 2021_05_23-CM446
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 14 travellers in distress off Sabratha. Eventually they were intercepted and brought back to Libya.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case:
On Sunday the 23rd of May 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to a boat in distress by a relative to one of the travellers. The relative told us that they were 14 people on a wooden boat which had left from Sabratha the same morning at 02.00 CEST. The travellers did not have a Thuraya satellite phone, only a normal phone which we tried to call without luck. Further, they had run out of fuel and were therefore adrift. At 13.58 CEST we sent an email to all relevant rescue authorities, forwarding all the information we had.
After many hours of not continuously trying to reach the travellers, we finally reached them at 19.55 CEST. They told us that they had been intercepted and brought back to Libya. They were all safely on land, but found themselves in an unbearable situation in the country they had tried to escape from.

Last update: 20:41 Dec 05, 2021

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