26/07: 35 travellers rescued by Malta

27.07.2021 / 18:18 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th July 2021

Case name: 2021_07_26-CM515

Situation: 35 travellers were rescued by Armed Forces of Malta.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:
At 23:58h CEST of Monday the 26th of July the Alarm Phone was alerted to a boat in distress via Twitter. Our shift team called the travellers, while communication was difficult we understood that they were 35 people on board including 4 children and 2 women. Due to bad connection , language barriers and the state of agitation of the travellers it took us several hours to retrieve further information such as their precise location. After finally receiving their GPS coordinates, while the situation was still unclear as to whether they were still moving or drifting, at 04:00h we forwarded them to the NGO boat Ocean Viking (OV), to airbone operations as well as to the so-called Libyan coastguard. At 04:27h OV responded that they were heading towards the distress case. At 07:47h we were informed by OV that the Maltese coastguard had instructed the merchant vessel “SONGA IRIDIUM” to support the boat in distress while they sent a patrol vessel. Having already lost contact to the travellers, during the rest of the day our shift team was called several times by worried relatives of travellers seeking information on their loved ones. We incessantly tried to find out what had happened to the travellers through contact with the company who owns the merchant vessel, the Maltese coastguard and the so-called Libyan coastguard, however no one gave us any updates. Only the following morning did we received confirmation from the travelers’ relatives that they had reached Malta on board of a vessel of the Armed Forces of Malta.

Twitter Chronology:

26.07

09:30 - https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1419923186171404288

10:50 - https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1419943176706605065

22:32 - https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1420120013067935745

27.07

10:54 - https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1420306543489306624

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