07/11: +380 people in distress in Maltese SAR zone, rescued to Italy

08.11.2021 / 17:04 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – November 7th 2021

Case name: 2021_11_07-CM620

Situation: +380 people, including around 16 women and 38 children arrived to Lampedusa, rescued by Italian coast guard

WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of Case: At midday November 7th Alarm Phone received a call from a relative informing us about a group of ~250 travellers including many women and children in distress who had departed Abu Kamash the previous day in a blue wooden boat. The relative was unable to provide a GPS position or contact number to the boat. At 13.50 CET we received an e-mail from an reconnaissance airplane, informing us the plane had observed a boat in distress matching the descritption of the relative in Maltese SAR zone. According to the operators of the reconnaissance plane, they tried to establish contact to merchant vessesl in the vicinity, which remained unresponsive to their calls; the operators likewise reported that a vessel of the so-called Lybian coast guard was observed close to the people in distress at 17.13 CET. At 20.48 CET the relative who had first called us provided a thuraya number on the boat and related that they had had news from the boat in distress, informing that staff of on the vessel of the so-called Lybian coast guard was firing at the boat in distress. We forwarded all information received to authorities at 22.30 CET.

We tried to establish direct contact to the people in distress throughout the night but were unable to. At 08.22 CET and 10.50 CET the following day we were able to obtain an updated GPS positions from the boat, which we forwarded to authorities. In the late afternoon of the same day, November 8th, we received information that the Italian coast guard had rescued the group of more than 380 people from sea and brought them to Lampedusa. The relative who had initially alerted us to the distress situation confirmed the arrival.

Tweets

Sea Watch

November 7th

18.35 CET

18.36 CET

20.20 CET

November 8th

17.25 CET

Last update: 22:58 Jun 08, 2022

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