19/01: Around 100 travellers violently intercepted to Libya

20.01.2022 / 08:25 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th January 2022

Case name: 2022_01_19-CM006

Situation: Around 100 travellers in distress in the Central Med, violently intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Wednesday the 19th of January 2022, the Alarm Phone shift team received a direct call from a group of around 100 travellers, including three women and several children, in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left from Zawiya on a black rubber boat and told us that they were drifting as their engine had broken. We managed to get the GPS position of the travellers and immediately alerted all relevant search and rescue authorities to the distress of the boat. We tried to stay in contact with the boat, but due to bad connection it was difficult to get any more information. In the afternoon, a rescue NGO who had arrived on scene informed us that they had observed the so-called Libyan coastguard carry out a violent intercepting of the travellers. Several travellers had fallen in the water, and they saw the so-called Libyan coastguard shooting at one of the travellers in the water. It is unclear whether all the travellers were picked up and brought back to Libya. After the so-called Libyan coastguard had set off back towards Libya, the NGO vessel went to the location of the deflated boat but did not find any more people in the water.

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