19/02: 68 travellers violently intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard

Verified

  In Distress   Interception

20.02.2022 / 08:38 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th February 2022

Case name: 2022_02_19-CM039

Situation: 68 travellers in distress in the Central Med, violently intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard and imprisoned in Libya.


Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Saturday the 19th of February 2022, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a boat carrying 68 travellers, including women and children, in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left from Sabratha in the early hours of the morning on a black wooden boat. The travellers told us that they were adrift and that water was entering their boat. We managed to get their GPS position and immediately relayed all the information we had to the relevant search and rescue authorities. Later, we learned that the travellers had been violently intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard and that they were being held in prison back in Libya.


Tweets about the case: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1495161647459094532
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • 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

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