20/09: 120 people in distress in the Central Mediterranean

21.09.2021 / 13:25 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – September 20th 2021

Case name: 2021_09_20-CM571

Situation: 120 people departed from Sabratha, likely intercepted to Lybia by so-called Lybian coast guard

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of Case In the afternoon of September 20th Alarm Phone was called by a relative who alerted us to a group of 120 people in distress who had departed Sabratha the previous night in a wooden boat. We were unable to establish direct contact to the group of travellers, nor find out a GPS position. In the evening we received news that a similar boat was intercepted by the so-called Lybian coast guard. We tried to establish direct contact to the 120 people in distress throughout the night and following day, to no avail. Since we were unable to obtain any further information regarding this group of travellers we believe it to have been the same boat inercepted by the so-called Lybian coast guard.

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