01/06: 136 travelers in distress off Libya, intercepted by the so-called Libyan coast guard.

02.06.2021 / 19:52 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 1st of June 2021

Case name: 2021_06_01-CM453

Situation: 136 travelers call the Alarm Phone from the Libyan SAR zone. Intercepted by the so-called Libyan coast guard shortly afterwards.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the case:

On the 1st of June 2021 at 07h02 CEST, the Alarm Phone received a call from a group of people in distress. Our shift team explained to them how to read the GPS location from their satellite phone, and at 07h15 CEST, they called us back and transferred us their GPS coordinates in the Libyan Search and Rescue zone. According to them, there were 136 people on board, among them six children, four women and 126 men. They told us that he children were very young and one of the women was pregnant. Our shift team sent an e-mail to the so-called Libyan coast guard, and the Italian and Maltese Rescue Coordination Centres.

While we were talking to the travelers again at 07h51 CEST, they said that there was a boat approaching them, then the call broke. From then on, we could not get through to them anymore. Shortly after this, Pilotes Volontaires published the information that they had monitored the interception of this boat carried out by the so-called Libyan coast guard.

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