18/11: 75 travellers brought to Lampedusa

19.11.2021 / 19:23 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 18th November 2021

Case name: 2021_11_18-CM631

Situation: 75 travellers rescued and brought to Lampedusa after days of non-assistance.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Thursday the 18th of November 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 75 travellers, including 10 women and eight children, in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. After trying continuously throughout the day, in the afternoon we managed to reach the boat. The travellers had left from Sabratha, Libya, the previous evening, and told us that many people onboard were sick. They told us that they only had little fuel left and that waves were getting high. We managed to get their GPS position, and immediately relayed all the information we had to the relevant rescue authorities. We stayed in contact with the boat and updated the authorities with their position and situation onboard when possible. As the authorities would not confirm that a search and rescue operation was being coordinated, we additionally attempted to reach out to companies of merchant vessels in the vicinity as well as making the authorities aware of their positions and urging them to coordinate rescue. During the night, the travellers made it to the Maltese search and rescue zone. The following day many worried relatives contacted us, asking for news about their loved ones. For that whole day, we were not able to get any news about the fate of the travellers. Only the day after, on the 20th of November, we learned in the evening that the travellers had been picked up and brought to Lampedusa after many hours of non-assistance by the European coastguards. Luckily they arrived safely, the delay in rescue could as well have lead to the loss of lives.

Tweets about the case: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1461700686366879753

https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1461984155290451971?s=21

https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1462166707271880705?s=20

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