04/11: 82 people started from Zawiya, Libya, and reached Lampedusa

05.11.2020 / 20:29 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 4th of November 2020

Case name: 20201104-CM323

Situation: 82 people started from Zawiya, Libya, and reached Lampedusa

Status of WTM Investigation: concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:

On 4th of November 2020 at 23:30h CET the Alarm Phone was called by a satellite phone. The following information was given by the travellers: 82 people, among them 6 women and 2 children started in Zawiya 3 days ago in a gray rubber boat. The engine was still working. They passed also a GPS position which was sent with all other information at 23:58h via email to the competent authorities.

On 5th November at 00:07h CET the travellers called again and passed another GPS position which was nearly the same then the one before. They added that the engine now stops working from time to time. The new information was sent via email to Maltese and Italian coast guards who where called afterwards to confirm the reception of the email. At 02:50h the travellers reported another GPS position which is now only 10 nm from Lampedusa. An email and phone call to MRCC Rome followed. At 03:12h the travellers shouted for help and the shift team tried to explain that they should call Italy by themselves. The last GPS position was given at 03:52h, afterwards the contact to the people on board broke.

At 14:27h Alarm Phone called MRCC Rome but they refused to give any information.

Only through friends on Lampedusa the shift team got to know that the people landed on the island.

Last update: 15:55 Feb 16, 2021

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