24/07: 18 travellers in distress near Sfax, intercepted by the Tunisian coastguard.

25.07.2021 / 16:38 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 24th July 2021

Case name: 2021_07_24-CM513

Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 18 travellers in distress near Sfax, eventually they were intercepted by the Tunisian coastguard.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case:

In the afternoon of Saturday the 24th of July 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to a group of 18 travellers, including two babies and eight women who were in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left the previous day at 20.00 CEST from near Sfax on a white wooden boat. They told us that their engine had broken down at 03.00 and they had been drifting since. People were sick and had run out of food and water. The travellers did not have a satellite phone and had no internet connection on their smartphones. Therefore, it was not possible to receive their exact GPS position. At 16.09 CEST we sent an email to all relevant authorities alerting them to the situation of the travellers and asking them to start searching the area. In addition, we called the Tunisian and Italian coastguard.
We stayed in close contact with the travellers and updated authorities as the situation deteriorated and the boat started taking in water. The Tunisian coastguard confirmed that they were searching for the boat, while the Italian and Maltese coastguards refused to launch an operation without knowing the exact position of the travellers.
At 18.45 CEST we tweeted:
SOS! ~18 people adrift in the central Mediterranean!
We were alerted by a group in distress that left from #Sfax. The boat's engines have stopped working & water is entering the boat! The group has lost orientation and can't give their GPS position, but need to be rescued immediately!

The authorities refuse to locate their position and do not act. Europe uses surveillance and tracking technologies only for migration control, but not for saving lives!

At 19.40 CEST the travellers told us that they could see a big vessel approaching them, which was probably the rescue vessel from the Tunisian coastguard. We were not able to reach the travellers after this point, but two relatives as well as the Tunisian coastguard confirmed to us that the travellers had been intercepted and brought back to Tunisia and that everyone was safe.

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