01/07: 31 travellers rescued by Ocean Viking

02.07.2021 / 02:05 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 01st July 2021
Case name: 2021_07_01-CM489
Situation: 31 travellers rescued by Ocean Viking.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea
Summary of the Case: At 12:25h CEST on Thursday the 1st of July, the Alarm Phone was called by a boat in distress carrying 31 travellers. The boat was wooden and 8 meters long. At 13:33h our shift team alerted authorities via email passing on all the information we had, including GPS position. We reached the travellers again 20 minutes later, they told us that water was entering the boat, they could not continue much longer and were in urgent need for a rescue. At 15:49h we were copied in an email sent by the NGO search and rescue boat Ocean Viking (OV) to the Maltese coastguard in which they informed them that they had spotted the boat in distress in the Maltese Search and Rescue Zone and were waiting for instructions. They also informed that a vessel of the so-called Libyan coastguard was on scene. Later in the afternoon we received the news that OV had successfully completed the rescue.

Twitter Thread

01/07
15:20 - https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1410589089884168197?s=21

Last update: 02:33 Jan 25, 2022

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