23/12: 38 travellers intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard.

24.12.2021 / 21:00 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 23rd December 2021

Case name: 2021_12_23-CM658

Situation: 38 travellers in distress in the Central Med, intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Thursday the 23rd of December 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of around 38 travellers, including three pregnant women and five children, in distresss in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left the previous evening on a wooden boat, and had already been adrift for nine hours. We were told that several people onboard had lost consciousness and that the children were sick. We managed to get their GPS position, and immediately alerted all relevant authorities and NGO vessels to the distress situation. Later, the travellers told us that three people had fallen overboard and died and that the sea was rough with high waves entering the boat. We attempted to calm down the travellers, asking them to remain calm and seated while awaiting rescue. During our calls to the boat we could hear people crying in the background. At 13.27 CET the travellers told us that they could see a white vessel approaching. We later learned that the travellers most probably had been intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard and brought back to Libya.

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