V_SAR Op 17.08.21 B

These are the words that the first victim we found wrote to us.

17 August 2021 – Mohamed’s case

This was a collective pushback recorded in the Frontex JORA database for Joint Operation Themis 2021 , IncidentID: 710494, IncidentNumber: 455112.

This pushback was a JO Themis 2021 operation – conducted by “Frontex in synergy with the Italian authorities and the support of the Member States of the European Union and the Schengen Associated Countries.” (cit. Italian Ministry of Defense https://www.difesa.it/OperazioniMilitari/op_intern_corso/JointOperationTriton/Pagine/default.aspx). It is therefore an operation conducted by Frontex and Italy. The Libyans are not part of JO Themis operations.

The wooden boat on which the migrants who were subject to pushback were travelling was located in international waters by European air assets which then sent the Libyan patrol boat Ras El Jadir 648 to capture them .

In conjunction with what is recorded in the JORA database, using the air routes of the ADB-S Exchange website and with the testimonies of the pushback victims we can establish the direct intervention of European air assets, specifically the Frontex IAI AS2132 Heron Shoval drone (which has a Maltese armed forces serial number but is operated by Frontex) and the Italian Air Force Beechcraft B.350ER SPYDR aircraft.

JLProject has tracked down many victims, including one, Mohamed, who died in Libya after the pushback (hit by a vehicle while escaping from the detention centre in which those pushed back had been detained).

One of the victim is now in France, the others are in Libya or other African countries.

The pushback victims are clearly recognizable in the photographs of the landing in Tripoli posted by the Libyans.

The pushback victims differ in their recall of whether the person driving the boat called for help or communicated with anyone during the crossing.

Case data

• Wooden boat
• 76 people – all male
• Captured on 17 August 2021 by the Libyan patrol boat Ras El Jadir 648
• Disembarked in Tripoli shortly before sunset the same day

Frontex Incident Report Data

IncidentID	710494
IncidentNumber	455112
OperationSectorType	SEA
PrimaryIncidentType	Prevention of departure
Exit
SAR	No
OperationStatus	Active
DetectionByFrxAsset	Yes
InterceptionByFrxAsset	No
OtherFrontexAssetInvolvement	No
FrontexInvolvement	Yes
ReportingCountry	Italy
DetectionDate	2021-08-17
InterceptionDate	2021-08-17
CountryOfDeparture	Libya
DetectionInitiatedBy	MAS
Disembarkation	Tripoli
TransportType	wooden boat
num_l_MigrantsDeterred	30
num_total_persons	0

NOTE: The case is present in the Frontex JORA database. There should also be a more detailed report, but JLProject has not yet found it. A document request has been submitted to Frontex on 14.02.25 and a response is pending at time of writing.

Frontex frequently gets the number of people and the type of boat wrong, because the people who write the reports are not very good at extracting this data from aerial photos. In this case they recorded the type of boat correctly (wooden boat) but underestimated the passengers.

There is a second pushback case which disembarked in Tripoli on the same date – rubber boat ID 710508, number 455115. Given the type of boat, we have excluded it from the scope of this investigation.

PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIAL OF THE CASE

The Libyans posted a report of the case on Twitter with photos of the disembarkation.

In the first tweet ( https://twitter.com/rgowans/status/1428011163355435011?s=20 ) they conflate the pushbacks effected by the Ras El Jadir and the Ubari, another Libyan patrol boat. In subsequent tweets they then go into detail dividing the two operations.

At the link https://twitter.com/rgowans/status/1428409247176478723?s=20 they provided an (inaccurate) count of the victims returned on each patrol boat:

We can easily identify which photos are of the pushback carried out by the patrol boat Ras El Jadir, because its number (648) is clearly visible.

We have 4 photos, which we name F1, F2, F3, F4.

Some Libyan newspapers and websites also report the pushbacks which occurred on 17 August. For example:
https://libyaupdate.com/tripoli-coast-guard-intercepts-172-migrants-on-their-way-to-europe/

PHOTOGRAPHIC RECOGNITION

All the victims we found are visible in the 4 disembarkation photos. The photograph in which the of the face of victim no. 1 is visible was sufficiently high quality that our facial recognition software was able to recognise him without difficulty.

CASE RECONSTRUCTION

Day 16 August 2021

Around 18:00 UTC (around 20:00 CAT):
Departure of the boat from the port of Al Zawiya. It is a wooden boat, blue on the top and red on the lower part. On board there are between 70 and 75 people, all men, of different nationalities, including Sudan, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Egypt. (Source: testimony of the victims)

Day 17 August 2021

02:07 UTC : Frontex drone (AS2132) Heron Shoval takes off from Malta (source: ADS-B Exchange data)

04:00 UTC Frontex drone (AS2132) Heron Shoval reaches the Zawiya – Lampedusa route and starts flying over the area. (source: ADS-B Exchange data)

Between 4:00 and 5:00 UTC : The victims reported that around 6 am (CAT) a plane flew over their boat. (Source: testimony of the victims)

04:17 UTC (06:17 CAT) : Frontex drone (AS2132) Heron Shoval appears to have identified something of interest, circling a point at coordinates 33.954, 12.550. (source: ADS-B Exchange data)

The Frontex AS2132 Heron Shoval drone remains flying over the area for hours.

Note: between 6:47 and 6:58 the Heron Shoval drone’s transponder is not emitting a signal, the rest of the time it does. Some circular flight patterns typical of surveillance flying can be identified.

07:25 UTC : Frontex drone AS2132 Heron Shoval performs another circular flight pattern at coordinates 33.525, 12.038.

07:44 UTC the drone passes over the exact same point again:

09:30 UTC : Frontex drone AS2132 Heron Shoval flies in a circle over a point at coordinates 34.298, 12.359, still on the Zawiya-Lampedusa route.

Unspecified time: patrol boats Ras El Jadir 648 and Ubari 660 receive a request for intervention, but it is not clear from whom it comes. The Libyans are not saying.

The Libyan Coast Guard publishes a statement about the operation on Facebook:

Translation of the statement: “As part of the humanitarian efforts and sovereign duties to protect the Libyan coasts, provide search and rescue services in the Libyan area of competence and save the lives of illegal immigrants by sea, two patrol boats of the Libyan Coast Guard managed yesterday (17.8.2021) to rescue (172 immigrants of different African nationalities in two separate operations), heading towards the European coasts on two boats. Immediately after receiving a distress call , the two boats (Ubari and Ras Jadir) were underway after being equipped with the necessary capabilities for the rescue and recovery operation (on site), where the members of the apparatus played their role to the best of their ability. Immediately after the completion of the rescue operations, the migrants were disembarked at (disembarkation point of the Tripoli Naval Base) and were all transferred to the Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency”¹

Unknown time: the Italian Air Force Beechcraft B.350ER SPYDR (reg. MM62300 – callsign IAM1499) aircraft takes off from Pantelleria for a patrol mission in the Libyan SAR zone. We only have a partial record of its route because it keeps its transponder off for most of the flight.

From 13:45 to 15:02 UTC: the transponder of the Italian Air Force Beechcraft B.350ER SPYDR (reg. MM62300 – callsign IAM1499) aircraft is switched on and its route is recorded from this point.

Between 12 and 14 UTC (14 and 16 CAT) the migrant boat is captured by the patrol boat Ras El Jadir 648. (Source: victim testimony)

Subsequently the patrol boat Ras El Jadir 648 captures other migrants from another boat. (Source: victim testimony).

17:00-17.30 UTC ^: disembarkation at the port of Tripoli.

After landing, IOM and IRC employees board the patrol boat Ras el Jadir 648. They distribute water and food to the migrants on board.

In the photos posted by the Libyans (especially photo F3) you can see the sun’s reflection on the patrol boat: the light comes obliquely from the west, indicating it is just before sunset.

17:47 UTC ( 19:47 CAT) sunset in Tripoli.

In the following hours : From the port of Tripoli the victims are deported to the Ghout Sha’al prison(Al-Mabani).

19:00 UTC: Frontex drone (AS2132) Heron Shoval lands in Malta after its mission (source: ADS-B Exchange data)

In the following days and weeks:

Ghout Sha’al (Al Mabani) detention centre. Others will escape after about 45 days. During the escape one of the victims, Mohamed, is hit by a speeding car and dies.