12/06: 40 people started from Libya, rescued to Malta by Armed Forces Malta

13.06.2021 / 17:56 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th of June 2021

Case name: 2021_06_12-CM467

Situation: 40 people started from Libya in a blue wooden boat and were rescued to Malta by AFM

Status of WTM Investigation: concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On the 12th of June 2021 at 02:00 CEST the Alarm Phone received a distress call by a satellite phone. The person on the phone told to be on a blue wooden boat with 40 people, mostly from Syria but also from Sudan, Morocco and Egypt. The person transferred a GPS position which was shared at 03:24 CEST with the Italian and Maltese coast guards, as well as with the NGOs Sea-Watch and Pilotes Volontaires and the NGO vessel Geo Barents. In later phone calls with the travellers we learned that the engine was not properly and water was entering the boat. All in all four urgent cases were ongoing that time which was published in a tweet at 12:15 CEST. The travellers couldn’t be reached anymore and no information could be gathered until the end of the day. We closed the case without a clear outcome but learned at 24th of August that the people arrived on Malta.

Twitter chronology:

12th June, 12:15 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1403657304537505800

Last update: 18:16 Dec 23, 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