01/06: 70-100 travelers in distress drifting off Libya. Pushed back to land by the strong wind.

Verified

  In Distress

02.06.2021 / 19:55 / Central Mediterranean Sea

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

Case name: 2021_06_01-CM454

Situation: 70 to 100 travelers in distress call the Alarm Phone. We alert authorities, but eventually the travelers get pushed back by the strong wind to Libya.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the case:

On the 1st of June 2021 at 14h47 CEST, the Alarm Phone was called by a group of 70 to 100 people in distress, among them 15 women and 7 children. They passed us their GPS location in the Libyan Search and Rescue zone. They had started from Zawiyah in the early morning hours and their motor had stopped working. The situation was especially dangerous, because the weather conditions were worsening. We informed the so-called Libyan coast guard about the distress case via e-mail at 15h48 CEST. During the afternoon, we could not reach the Libyan authorities on the phone. In the evening, we received another GPS location which we sent to the authorities. In that call with the travelers, they said that the weather was getting very bad and that several persons were dying.

Throughout the night and the next day, we could not reach the people anymore. Neither did we receive information form the Libyan authorities. It was only the next evening that we learned through a relative of someone on the boat that the travelers had been pushed back to land by the wind and that at least two people had died.

Twitter chronology:

01.06.2021 @18h01 CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1399758105311801349?s=09

02.06.2021 @18h12 CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1400123050138480650
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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