11/03 Alarm Phone alerted to boat with 93 people coming from Al Khums/Libya, rescue confirmed

12.03.2018 / 10:21 / Libya, Central Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 11th of March 2018

Case name: 2018_03_11-CM124
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to vessel in distress off Libya
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Sunday the 11th of March 2018, our Alarm Phone shift team received a message from Father Zerai at around 10am, informing us about a boat that had left from Al Khums/Libya, carrying about 90 people, the majority from Eritrea. We could not reach the travellers directly but were able to re-charge their satellite phone with credit. We contacted the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Rome who had been informed about this case already. We also informed the non-governmental SAR aircraft Moonbird. At 11.35am Moonbird informed us that they were trying to locate the boat in question. The NGO Proactiva Open Arms then informed us at 12.20pm that they had rescued a group of people similar to the one we had described to them earlier. They stated that they had rescued 93 people who had come from Al-Khums the night before, all from Eritrea except one person who had come from Sudan. The group was in a very bad and weak medical condition, and the rescue vessel was heading north at a maximum speed to evacuate them.

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