02/08: 240 people in distress in international waters, rescued to Italy

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  In Distress   Boza

03.08.2021 / 19:23 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – August 2nd 2021

Case name: 2021_08_02-CM523
Situation: 240 people in distress in international waters, rescued and disembarked on Lampedusa
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of Case
In the night of August 2nd Alarm Phone was called by a group of around 240 travellers in distress. They forwarded a GPS position, which we found to be in international waters, and informed authorities of the distress situation at 01.42 CEST. We lost contact to the people in distress after their initial call. At 13.50 CEST the Marine Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) Malta informed us that the MRCC Rome had sent three SAR vessels to the area since there were several distress calls from the vicinity of the ~240 people. In the morning of the following day, August 3rd, we gain information that 240 people had been rescued from the area the people in distress had initially indicated to us, and brought to Lampedusa.
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

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