13/06: Three children and 87 men in distress in Maltese SAR zone, rescued by Italian Coast Guard

14.06.2021 / 16:36 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – June 13th 2021

Case name: 2021_06_13-CM472

Situation: 90 people in a deflating rubber boat, rescued more than eight hours after first alert

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Position : N 34 46.308 E 011 55.288 from 07:31 CEST

Summary of Case

In the morning of June 13th Alarmphone was alerted to a white rubber boat carrying three children and 87 men in distress in the Maltese SAR zone. According to people on the boat, water had started entering, they had had no life jackets and their engine was broken. We informed authorities at 08.33 CEST. Throughout the morning we received GPS positions from the boat and forwarded them to authorities. At 12.08 CEST, people on the boat related water continued to enter the boat and that their situation was critical. Still, authorities in Malta had refused to confirm they had launched a SAR mission. At 16.45 CEST we received confirmation that the travellers had been rescued by the Italian Coast Guard.

Tweets:

June 13th

08.58 CEST

16.02 CEST

17.45 CEST

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