22/12: Around 50 travellers intercepted and brought back to Libya

23.12.2021 / 20:41 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd December 2021

Case name: 2021_12_22-CM654

Situation: Around 50 travellers in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Wednesday the 22nd of December 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team received a direct call from a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Onboard were around 50 travellers, including many women and children as well as newborns. The travellers had left from Zawiya the previous day at around 19.00 CET on a yellow rubber boat. We managed to get the GPS position of the travellers, and immediately forwarded the information we had to all relevant rescue authorities. After this, we were no longer able to reach the travellers, and by monitoring their phone credit online we could tell that they were also not in contact with anyone else. Later in the morning we spoke to the so-called Libyan coast guard who informed us that there were ongoing search and rescue operations for three boats north of Zawiya. They later confirmed that the boat we had alerted them to had been intercepted.

Last update: 20:45 Jun 18, 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