03/06: A total of approx. 230 travelers in two boats return to Libya on their own.

04.06.2021 / 19:59 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 3rd of June 2021

Case name: 2021_06_03-CM455

Situation: One boat carrying 114 travelers, a second boat carrying 115 travelers call the Alarm Phone. They decide to return to Libya due to bad weather conditions.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the case:

On the 3rd of June 2021 around 20h30 CEST, the Alarm Phone was alerted to two boats that had left in a convoy from Al Khums, Libya. On one of the boats, there was a satellite phone. Our shift team could talk to someone on that boat at 21h09 CEST. According to them, there were 114 people among them 10 children, 20 women and 85 men and it was a white rubber boat. On the other boat, there were said to be 115 travelers, among them 13 women, 9 children and 93 men on a grey rubber boat. Eventually, we learned that both groups of people had decided to return to Libya, because the weather conditions had been too bad for the trip.
Last update: 12:51 Dec 19, 2021
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