‪‬ 24/06: Boat with about 100 travellers rescued to Italy

25.06.2016 / 10:55 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 24th of June 2016

Case name: 2016_06_24-CM65
Situation: Alarm Phone
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Friday, the 24th of June 2016, at 7.49, the Alarm Phone received a direct call from a boat with about 100 travellers on the way from Libya to Italy. They urgently asked for help. They had left from Tripoli the day before around 1am. The officer of the Italian coastguard, to whom we passed on the Thuraya telephone number, promised to try to localize the boat. We charged the Thuraya phone and asked the travellers to send us their coordinates, but did not receive any answer. At 9.09am, we reached out to the Coastguard again, who had, in the meantime, localized the boat. The Italian Coastguard sent an Italian warship to rescue the boat. At 1.15pm, the start of the rescue operation and at 3.43pm the successful rescue operation was confirmed. The Italian Coastguard said that the warship had rescued about 100 persons from a rubber boat. At 8.22pm, a contact person whose family members had been on the rubber boat also confirmed their rescue and told us that they had been brought to Italy.

Last update: 11:05 Jul 02, 2016

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