26/07: 45 people rescued by Italian coast guard, fate of 85 people unclear

27.07.2020 / 18:07 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – July 26th 2020
Case name: 20200726-CM271
Situation: 45 people including four children rescued by Italian coast guard
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary

On July 26th Alarmphone was alerted to two cases. One of the boats in distress was rescued by the Italian coast guard; the fate of the second boat in distress, carrying 85 people, remains unclear.

Summary Case 1
In the early morning of July 26th Alarmphone was alerted to 45 people in distress, including four children. They conveyed their position to us, which we forwarded to authorities along with the distress call at 02.21 CEST. People reported to be wet, there were sick children on board, water had entered their boat. We continued updating authorities with GPS positions as conveyed to us by the people in distress throughout the night until midday. At 15.39 CEST the people on the boat informed us their engine had stopped working. Throughout the afternoon calls from the people in distress became more and more desparate; no help had arrived by midnight. Authorities both in Rome and Malta refuse to take responsibility for coordinating a rescue in this case. We lost contact to the people in distress during the night. In the morning if July 27th a relative of the people in distress informed us they had been rescued to Italy by the Italian coast guard.

Twitter Chronology

10.14 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1287299704938795008

14.42 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1287367617787961345

16.48 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1287399339887910912

17.01 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1287402771969462272

19.27 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1287439506816348161

July 27th

13.04 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1287705493084016642

Summary Case 2

In the evening of July 26th Alarmphone received several calls from relatives asking for a boat of estimated 85 people including four women and two children. Relatives of people on the boat reported the boat had been in distress when contact broke. We forwarded this information to authorities via e-mail at 22.05 CEST. We were unable to establish contact with the boat ourselves. Upon calling authorities in Lybia we were advised to call again in the morning – the officer could not confirm the interception of a boat matching the description of this case. In the morning of July 28th we called authorities in Rome, who confimed the reception of our e-mail but refused to provide us with any further information. We were unable to establish contact with the boat in distress throughout the day. Information provided by authorities in Lybia on intercepted boats did not fully match with the information provided to us by relatives of the people in distress. We received further calls of relatives asking about this case.

In the morning of July 29th a member of the Italian coast guard made a social media post about their instituation having attempted to instruct several nearby vessels, including the supply vessel Vos Aphrodite, to change course towards a small boat in distress. According to this post, the Italian coast guard received no response from vessels they had contacted and sent one of their own vessels towards the boat in distress. In the early morning of July 30th the embarcation of 84 people, including six women and two children to the Italian vessel was confirmed. Since we were never able to contact the people in distress directly, and relatives reported they had been unable to establish contact to their family members by August 7th, the fate of the 82 people in distress including eight women and two children remains sadly unclear.
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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