02/01: 50 travellers in distress, outcome unclear

03.01.2024 / 13:32 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd of January 2024
Case name: 2024_01_02-CM001
Situation: Alarm Phone lost contact to a boat with 50 travellers off the coast of Tunisia, outcome unclear
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: In the early morning of the 2nd of January, a relative alerted the Alarm Phone shift team to a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean. The wooden boat had started in the evening of the 1st of January from near Sabratha, Libya. There were 50 people on the boat. The shift team did not manage to reach the travellers but immediately relayed all the information from the relative to the Tunisian coast guard as well as the Italian, Maltese and so-called Libyan coast guard. Notably the engine was not working anymore, people were in panic and one person was very sick. The outcome stays unknown until this day, as there has been no information provided by the Tunisian coast guard to the Alarm Phone shift team to confirm an interception. Most likely the boat has been either intercepted or is yet another invisible shipwreck.

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