09/11: Around 50 travellers arrived to Lampedusa

10.11.2021 / 18:53 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 9th November 2021

Case name: 2021_11_09-CM621

Situation: Around 50 travellers in distress in the Central Med, arrived safely to Lampedusa.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary: On Tuesday the 9th of November 2021, the Alarm phone shift team received a direct call from a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Onboard were 48 travellers, including a pregnant woman and two children, who were travelling on a blue and yellow wooden boat. The travellers told us that it was raining and they were cold and several of them were sick. They had left the previous day from Zuwara, and had now rund out of fuel and were therefore unable to move on. We managed to get their GPS position, and immediately alerted all relevant rescue authorities to the distress situation. We stayed in touch with the travellers and could follow how their situation deteriorated as wind and waves increased and the boat began to take in water. None of the travellers had life jackets. We updated the rescue authorities via email with the GPS positions of the travellers as well as their situation, however both the Italian and Maltese coastguards remained unwilling to confirm that they would coordinate a rescue operation, claiming not to be the competent authority. The travellers informed us that they had also tried reaching the Italian coastguard themselves but without success. In the night, we lost contact to the boat. The following day we learned via relatives that the travellers had arrived safely to Lampedusa.

Tweets about the case: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1458089884225245191

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