21/07: 85 travellers in distress in the Central Med, rescued by the Italian coastguard

22.07.2021 / 16:24 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st July 2021

Case name: 2021_07_21-CM508

Situation: Alarm Phone alerted by relative to 85 travellers in distress in the Central Med, rescued by the Italian coastguard.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case:


On Wednesday the 21st of July 2021 in the afternoon, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. On the boat was 85 travellers who had left from Sabratha on a wooden boat. When the relative had last spoken to the travellers two hours previously, their engine was no longer working as they had run out of fuel and several people on the boat were sick. At 15.42 CEST we sent an email to the relevant rescue authorities, forwarding all the information we had about the distress case. Despite trying many times, we were never able to establish direct contact to the travellers. At 16.10 CEST we spoke to the Italian coastguard who confirmed that they were aware of the boat in distress.
We learned that an Italian coastguard vessel was carrying out a rescue operation close to the last position of the travellers, and assume that this was the boat rescued by the coastguard. However, we were never able to reach neither the travellers nor the relative to confirm this.
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