07/03: 80 travellers rescued in the Central Med

Verified

  In Distress

08.03.2024 / 18:58 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations 7th March 2024
Case name: 2024_03_07-CM049
Situation: 80 travellers in distress in the Central Med, rescued.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Thursday the 7th of March 2024, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 80 travellers, including 14 children and 15 women, four of them pregnant, in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left from Sabratha on a rubber boat. The relative gave us their GPS position. We were not able to establish direct contact to the travellers but immediately alerted the relevant search and rescue authorities, relaying all the information we had. Later, we learned from the relative that the travellers had been rescued.
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

Related Reports

13:25 Sep 21, 2021 / Central Mediterranean Kms
20/09: 120 people in distress in the Central Mediterranean
15:44 Apr 11, 2015 / Central Mediterranean Sea, Off the coast of Libya Kms
Alarm Call from the Central Med, almost a 1000 people rescued
10:13 Jan 15, 2015 / 20 miles off Tripoli/Libya Kms
Vessel rescued in Libyan waters, carrying between 200-300 people
12:14 Jan 23, 2021 / Central Mediterranean Kms
22/01: 60 people coming from Zawiyya, Libya, rescued by Ocean Viking
18:29 Apr 26, 2021 / Central Mediterranean Sea Kms
25/04: Boat in distress in the Central Med drifted back to Libya