23/08: 50 people started from Zuwara, Libya, drifted for long close to Lampedusa until they’ve been rescued

24.08.2021 / 22:23 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – August 23rd 2021

Case name: 2021_08_23-CM550

Situation 50 people, among them one pregnant woman, departed from Zuwara on 22nd August and arrived in Lampedusa on 24th of August

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of Case: In the evening of August 23rd Alarm Phone was called by a satellite phone. The caller informed us to be on a boat with around 50 people, including 5 children and a pregnant woman. They passed us a GPS position verbally but we were unsure about the correctness as the connection was very bad. Nevertheless we informed authorities of Malta and Italy and the NGOs Sea-Watch and Pilote Volontaires at 23:51 CEST about the case via email. On August 24th at 05:00 CEST we reached the travellers via phone and they reported that the engine broke down recently, that they run out of water and food and would need assistance soon. At 05:37 CEST we alerted the authorities with the new GPS position which showed them close to Lampedusa island. 4 Hours later the NGO Pilotes Volontaires informed us about a sighting of a boat which was very likely the boat with 50 people, still at sea pushed by the waves in North direction. We sent an email to inform the authorities again about the urgent distress case. Although authorities provide no information, we believe that the 50 people were rescued to Lampedusa. We are glad they made it, but delays in rescue could have been lethal, as they often are.

Tweets

August 24th

08.00 CEST

17:56 CEST

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