23/12: 27 travellers in distress for days, finally rescued to Italy

24.12.2021 / 21:01 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 23rd December 2021

Case name: 2021_12_23-CM659

Situation: 27 travellers in distress in the Central Med for days, finally rescued by the Italian coastguard and brought to Italy, after many hours of non-assistance.

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 27 travellers, including children, in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. We managed to reach the travellers who told us that they had been at sea for almost 40 hours and that they were travelling on a fiber glass boat. We managed to get the GPS position of the boat, showing that they were in the Maltese search and rescue zone, and immediately alerted all relevant rescue authorities and NGO vessels in the area. We stayed in contact with the travellers, and were able to update the authorities with their GPS positions as well as the information we got about the deteriorating situation on board where the children were sick and the panic amongst the travellers increasing. As we were not able to obtain information from rescue authorities about ongoing efforts to rescue the travellers, we additionally reached out to shipping companies owning merchant vessels in the vicinity, but never received an answer to our requests. We lost contact to the travellers, and only later learned that they had been rescued and brought to Italy.

Tweets published about the case: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1474094272240566281?t=sTgbsEbDLLVdgH151qljEA&s=09https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1474105996171784193?t=XRQ1UPRCv1ZRMdR5UeHtmA&s=09https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1474435867599060994

https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1475208556748099587?s=21

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