17/05: About 200 travellers in distress on a boat off the Libyan coast, rescued

18.05.2016 / 18:08 / Off the coast of Libya

About 200 travellers in distress on a boat off the Libyan coast, rescued

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th of May 2016
Case name: 2016_05_17-CM61
Situation: About 200 travellers in distress off Libya, rescued
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Tuesday the 17th of May 2016, at 11.35am, our shift team was called by a contact person who passed on the phone number of a group of 191 Syrians who were on a boat that had left from Libya about 5 hours earlier and were moving toward Malta. The phone was not reachable anymore and the contact person also did not have information about the location of their departure. Our shift team then tried to call the boat but without success. We checked their phone credit online and they had sufficient credit to make calls. At 12.40pm we contacted the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome and informed them about the case. At 2.06pm, we received another call from the contact person but communication was difficult and then the contact was interrupted. At 2.46pm MRCC Rome confirmed that they were working on the case but refused to pass on more information. Later in the afternoon, the Italian coastguards tweeted about the rescue of 200 people, including 45 women and 11 children. At 5.45pm we contacted MRCC Rome and they confirmed the rescue of the boat in question.
Last update: 16:10 May 30, 2016
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