11/01: 85 travellers departed from Zuwara intercepted by so-called Libyan coastguard

12.01.2024 / 13:51 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 11th of January 2024
Case name: 2024_01_11-CM008
Situation: 85 people were intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard and brought back to Libya
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: In the morning of the 11th of January 2024, a relative alerted the Alarmphone shift team to a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean. The boat had started on the 11th of January from Zuwara. There were 85 people, including 10 to 12 women, urgently asking for rescue on a blue wooden boat with 2 engines. The shift team managed to reach the travellers. Water was entering the boat and one of the two engines was not working anymore. The people on board were without any life saving equipment. They further reported to already have been taken back once to the Libyan shores by naval forces with their money being taken away before they have been released again. The alarm phone shift team immediately relayed all the relevant information to the authorities. Later on the 11th of January, the boat was intercepted again by the so-called Libyan coastguard and brought back to Libya.

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