02/05: 68 people left from Zuara, rescued to Lampedusa

03.05.2020 / 00:00 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd of May 2020
Case name: 2020_05_02 CM242
Situation: 68 people left from Zuara, rescued to Lampedusa
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:
In the morning of May 2nd Alarmphone was alerted to a boat in distress near Lampedusa carrying 68 people (no children). According to the family member who alerted Alarmhone to the distresst case, the people had spent the last 30 hours without food or water and the boat’s engine had broken down several times. At 07.54h authorities in Rome and Malta were informed of the distress case. At 09.00h contact could be re-established with the people on the boat, who informed us that the health condition of those on board was worsening, there was an urgent need for drinking water and the engine had stopped working. They sent an updated GPS position. At 09.10h authorities were informed of the current situation of the people in distress and called on to coordinate their rescue. At 09.30h people on the boat reached out to the Alarmphone again and informed about the steadily worsening condition on board with people panicking. We lost contact to the people on the boat. At 09.50h the rescue of all 67 people by the Italian Coast Guard and the Guardia di Finanza was confirmed. According to the coast guards, people jumped overboard from fear when they saw the coast guard boats approaching. AT 10.00h Alarmphone tweeted: “This case shows again that people escaping Libya have to move much further to be rescued, thus risking their lives for longer times. In this case, at least, @guardiacostiera reacted promptly - unlike @Armed_Forces_MT who delay rescues, sabotage boats & force people back to Libya.”
Last update: 11:00 Aug 14, 2020
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

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