31/08: 18 travellers in distress in the Central Med, rescued by fishermen

01.09.2021 / 13:53 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 31st August 2021

Case name: 2021_31_08-CM556

Situation: 18 travellers in distress in the Central Med, rescued by local fishermen and brought back to Tunisia

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Tuesday the 31st of August 2021 the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by relatives to a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The group consisted of 18 travellers, including one child of four years, nine men and nine women of which one was eight months pregnant. The travellers had left from Tunisia three days before on a fishing vessel and were travelling without a satellite phone which made communication with the boat impossible. The relatives had also not been in contact with the travellers since their departure. We sent an email to all relevant rescue authorities, forwarding all information we had about the distress case. We then called the Tunisian coastguard who confirmed that they had received our alert but had no additional information about an ongoing search and rescue operation. At 9.34 the following morning we learned from one of the relatives that they had spoken to the travellers who had been rescued by local fishermen after their engine had broken down. The travellers were now back in Tunisia and informed that everyone was safe.
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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