04/02: 32 travellers intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard

05.02.2024 / 16:34 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations 4th February 2024
Case name: 2024_02_04-CM026
Situation: 32 travellers in distress in the Central Med, intercepted and returned to Libya.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Sunday the 4th of February 2024, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to a group of 32 travellers, including two children, in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left from Benghazi. They told us that the waves were high, the children were sick and they were running out of drinking water. We managed to get their GPS position and immediately alerted the relevant search and rescue authorities, relaying all the information we had. We stayed in contact with the travellers and learned that their engine broke down. We relayed their updated positions and news about the situation onboard to the authorities as often as possible. In addition, we reached out to nearby merchant vessels, urging them to intervene in accordance with international law. After a call to the boat at 05.12am we lost contact to the travellers.
Later, we learned that the travellers had been intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard.

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