01/01: 13 people in distress between Algeria and Italy, rescued to Italy

02.01.2022 / 08:03 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – January 1st 2022

Case name: 2022_01_01-CM001

Situation: One woman, twelve men drifting 80km from Italian coast, rescued by Italian navy

WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of Case: In the afternoon of January 1st 2022 Alarm Phone was called by a relative who alerted us to a group of one women and twelve men in distress. According to the caller the group had left Annaba, Algeria the previous evening and the relative had had no news of the group since then. We were unable to establish direct contact to the people in distress and forwarded the alert to authorities at 16.30 CET. We tried to establish direct contact to the people in distress throughout the night. Authorities did not provide any update concerning the group of 13 people throughout the night and following day. Around 14.00 CET on January 2nd the relative contacted us again, providing more contact numbers of the people in distress and informing us the boat had left together with three others, two of which had arrived to Italy. According to the caller, people from the boats that arrived informed family members that the boat carrying 13 people had had a motor problem approximately 80km from the Italian coast. We updated authorities. At 20.48 CET the relative informed us the boat had been found by the Italian navy and people were being rescued to Italy.

Tweets

January 2nd

17.51 CET

January 3rd

09.59 CET

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