V_SAR Op 18.05.21

Tuesday, 18 May 2021

RIllegal pushback handled by operation Themis (Frontex and the Italian government) and reported in operation Themis database JORA.

The Themis operation provides the Libyan militiamen with the coordinates of 3 different boats fleeing Libya. The Libyans dispatch patrol boat Fezzan 658, which intercepts all of them (213 people in total) and disembarks them in Tripoli.

The 3 boats, all of which were already in international waters at the time of the first sighting, are:

• B1 = blue wooden boat with 84-88 people. Case followed by Alarm Phone (report https://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/2032 ).  First sighting: uncertain, possibly an Alarm Phone alert.  Corresponding to Themis operation no. 609771/440611
• B2 = boat (type unknown) with 70–95 people (95 according to AP, 70 according to Frontex). First sighting: Frontex surveillance aircraft Osprey 1. Corresponding to Themis operation no. 609767 / 440609. Case followed by Alarm Phone (report https://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/2034)
•  B3= wooden boat with 23–25 people including 2 women and 2 children. First sighting: uncertain (aerial sighting or Alarm Phone alert). Corresponding to Themis operation no. 609786/440615. Case followed by Alarm Phone (report https://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/2033)

Order of interception: The first two boats, B1 and B2, are very close to each other when intercepted; the third, B3, is closer to Libya. Fezzan first intercepts B1 and B2 (we do not know in which order) and finally, while returning towards Tripoli, intercepts B3. Source: the pushback victims from B3, whom we traced, testify that they were the last to be intercepted.

Alarm Phone follows the cases of all three boats and transmits the coordinates to the Italian Coast Guard.

Direction and cooperation of the Themis operation (Frontex and the Italian government)

In its JORA database, Frontex states that these pushbacks are “Joint Operation Themis 2021” and that the operation status is ACTIVE. According to Frontex, these are European operations. They are therefore ILLEGAL pushbacks.

By extracting the relevant data from Frontex’s JORA database, we learn the following:

According to Frontex all 3 pushbacks are Themis operations and the second one, B2, was initiated following a sighting by a Frontex aerial asset. The aerial tracks in our possession confirm this: the Frontex surveillance aircraft Osprey 1 flew over B2 (see tracks).

There is also evidence of WhatsApp chat logs between Frontex and the Libyans, classified as “Sensitive operational information”. Frontex provided blurred versions of these chats to journalists from Frag Den Staat.https://fragdenstaat.de/dokumente/141605-chat_02-redacted-notepad/

In all likelihood, in these chats Frontex transmits the coordinates of the boats to the Libyans. A court-ordered access to records, in judicial proceedings, could reveal the content of these communications.

18/05/2021, Text Removed – Sensitive Operational Information] +218 Text Removed – Personal Data: Messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted. No one outside of this chat, not even WhatsApp, can read or listen to them. [18/05/2021, Text Removed – Sensitive Operational Information] +218 Text Removed – Personal Data: Position Text Removed – Sensitive Operational Information is Text Removed – Sensitive Operational Information Text Removed – Sensitive Operational Information Text Removed – Sensitive Operational Information

JLProject traced some of the pushback victims who were on B3.

Focus on boat B3

Light-coloured wooden boat with 23 or 25 people on board. There were 2 women and 2 children.

Nationalities:
According to our witnesses (Sudanese), they were: 7 Sudanese, 6 Ivorians (including the 2 women with children), 9 Nigerians (NOTE: sub-Saharan Africans in general), and 1 Cameroonian.
(At the disembarkation of Fezzan in Tripoli (213 people from 3 boats), the Libyans record: Bangladesh 95, Burkina Faso 2, Cameroon 2, Egypt 24, Ghana 5, Ivory Coast 8, Morocco 41, Nigeria 1, Somalia 27 & Sudan 8. – ANALYSIS Sudanese sometimes refer to all sub-Saharan Africans as Nigerians, so it is possible that the 9 “Nigerians” reported by our witnesses were not actually Nigerian but from Burkina Faso, Ghana, etc.)

Case followed by Alarm Phone, who received distress calls from the boat with 23 people and recorded the coordinates. On the phone with AP, on the boat, was the Sudanese refugee A.I., later traced by JLProject. The phone was then passed to the two women on board – Ivorian nationals. NOTE: Request the call recording from Alarm Phone.

From an AP tweet we have the coordinates of the position from which they called: 33.8, 13,333 = 33 48 0, 13 20 0.

Intercepted on the evening of 18 May 2021, while in international waters, by patrol boat Fezzan 658, which had previously carried out other interceptions.

Disembarked in Tripoli at sunrise on 19 May. IOM and IRC staff are present.

Deported to two different prisons: first to Ghout, then transferred to Gharian.

Full Timeline

17 May, 23:00 CAT (22:00 UTC): boat B3 with 23 people onboard sets sail from the Libyan coast. From Zawiya or Janzur. On board – according to witnesses – there are also 2 women and 2 children. Nationalities: 7 Sudanese, 6 Ivorians (including the 2 women with children), 9 Nigerians, and 1 Cameroonian. Source: pushback victims.

18 May 2021

Approximately 4 UTC: Alarm Phone is contacted by a relative of one of the passengers on B1, a blue wooden boat with 88 people. They say the vessel risks capsizing due to high waves and strong winds. They send the travellers’ GPS position and their satellite phone number. Alarm Phone attempts to call, but the line is busy.

04:34 UTC: Alarm Phone sends an email to Maltese and Italian authorities to alert them to the distress situation of B1. Coordinates are attached.

Note: Alarm Phone is still unaware of the presence of B2 and B3.

6 UTC: The Frontex surveillance aircraft Osprey 1 persistently flies for hours over a point along the Zawiya – Lampedusa route. It identifies boat B2, as indicated in Frontex’s JORA database.

Zoom:

NOTE: on the 17th and 18th the Frontex drone As2132 also flew, but on routes not compatible with this case. On the screen it appears with ICAO A11111 (different from the usual ICAO 4D232D).

8:00 UTC (10 CEST): Qatar helicopter A7-GHP takes off from Tripoli.

8.30 UTC (10.30 CEST): Qatar helicopter A7-GHP reaches a point offshore Zawiya (only a few miles northwest of the coordinates provided by AP) and then turns back. We do not know whether it spotted anything. Perhaps B3.

NO TIME SPECIFIED: a relative of one of the travelers on B3 calls Alarm Phone, which then calls the boat and verifies its position. Source: AP report https://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/2033.

On the phone speaks the Sudanese refugee A.I., later traced by the JLProject. The phone is then passed to the two women on board – Ivorian nationals. Source: pushback victims. NOTE: Request the call recording from Alarm Phone.

From an AP tweet, we have the coordinates of the position from which they call: 33.8, 13,333 = 33 48 0, 13 20 0.

09:15 UTC (11:15 CEST): Alarm Phone alerts Italian and Maltese authorities, as well as the so-called Libyan Coast Guard, about boat B3 in distress with 25 people, including 2 children, in urgent danger off the Libyan coast. Water is entering the boat, and there is an urgent need for assistance.

Before 09:38 UTC (07:38 CEST) : Alarm Phone is also aware of the position of boat B1 with 88 people Source: https://x.com/alarm_phone/status/1394527904399306759

UNKNOWN TIME: There also are WhatsApp chat logs between Frontex and the Libyans, classified as “Sensitive operational information”. Frontex provided blurred versions of these chats to journalists from Frag Den Staat.https://fragdenstaat.de/dokumente/141605-chat_02-redacted-notepad/

In all likelihood, in these chats Frontex transmits the coordinates of the boats carrying migrants to the Libyans.

18/05/2021, Text Removed – Sensitive Operational Information] +218 Text Removed – Personal Data: Messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted. No one outside of this chat, not even WhatsApp, can read or listen to them. [18/05/2021, Text Removed – Sensitive Operational Information] +218 Text Removed – Personal Data: Position Text Removed – Sensitive Operational Information is Text Removed – Sensitive Operational Information Text Removed – Sensitive Operational Information Text Removed – Sensitive Operational Information

9.20 UTC (11.20 CEST): Qatar helicopter A7-GHP is back in Tripoli.

Approximately 11 UTC: Alarm Phone is contacted by B2. Source: https://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/2034. The boat has already entered the Maltese search and rescue (SAR) area.

13:42 UTC: the Falcon 900LX (I-NEMO) #CPI182 of the Italian Air Force (AISE foreign intelligence service / Italian government), takes off from Tripoli/Mitiga, headed to Rome/Ciampino. It likely does not sight boats, but it should be noted that Italian intelligence services maintain ongoing relations with Libyan militiamen. Source: https://x.com/scandura/status/1394662119564627971

14:10 UTC: A French military aircraft returns from a mission with its transponder switched off in the Libyan SAR area. Source https://x.com/scandura/status/1394657561564131332/photo/1.

14.26 UTC Alarm Phone sends an email to the Italian and Maltese Coast Guards with the coordinates of B2.

Source: https://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/2034.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Maltese Coast Guard does not answer Alarm Phone’s calls, while the Italian Coast Guard responds and asks to contact the “competent authorities”.

Approximately 15 UTC Alarm Phone ends another email to the Italian and Maltese Coast Guards urging them to instruct the cargo ship Maridive230, which is near B2 and B1, to conduct the rescue operation.

16.31 CEST: Alarm Phone sends another email to authorities with an updated position of boat B2, warning that it is drifting south due to the wind. Alarm Phone loses contact with B2. Monitoring the satellite phone credit of the shipwrecked people, it sees that they have not communicated with anyone else.

Alarm Phone notes that Maridive230 is very close to B2’s last position but is continuing towars Tunisia.

15:39 UTC (17:39 CEST) Alarm Phone publicly shares the case of B2, the boat with 95 people.  The engine has broken down, and they are drifting in the Maltese SAR area.

“They are close to the other 95 people in distress in Malta SAR,” AP writes.

16:22 (UTC) 18.22 CEST: AP reports on Twitter that the people on boat B3 have still not received assistance. Source https://x.com/alarm_phone/status/1394689978022731778 It provides updates on the case by publishing the boat’s coordinates: DMS 33 48 0, 13 20 0.

BEFORE THE INTERCEPTION boat B3 is repeatedly overflown by an aircraft. Source: pushback victims.

18 UTC (20:00 CAT Sunset.

Before 20:58 UTC:
Fezzan 658 begins the INTERCEPTIONS AT SEA. It intercepts B1 or B2 first.

20:58 UTC (22.58 CEST): Alarm Phone calls the so-called Libyan Coast Guard. The Libyans reply that they have taken people from one boat and are heading towards another boat. Source: https://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/2033

After 21 UTC: Interception of a second boat (B1 or B2) and finally interception of B3. The boat is reached by the Libyans, who intercept the 23 passengers. There are already many other people on board the patrol boat. This is the last interception of the day, and the patrol boat returns to Tripoli.

19 May 2021

Approximately 3:30 UTC (5:30 CAT): DISEMBARKATION IN TRIPOLI. Patrol boat Fezzan 658 disembarks in Tripoli with 213 migrants intercepted in 3 operations.

There is a video of the port entry:https://twitter.com/rgowans/status/1395010661852323841?s=20

IOM and UNHCR staff are present at disembarkation.

04:06 UTC (06:06 CAT) : SUNRISE.

After 4:30 UTC: the intercepted people are transferred to the Libyan camp of Ghout Shaal (Al Mabani). Some are later transferred to the Gharian camp. Source: pushback victims from B3.

‌OTHER MATERIALS

• Alarm Phone tweets https://x.com/search?q=from%3Aalarm_phone%20since%3A2021-05-18%20until%3A2021-05-20&src=recent_search_click
• One video and 3 photos of the disembarkation in Tripoli posted by Libyan accounts:https://twitter.com/rgowans/status/1395010661852323841?s=20

• IOM records the case with the date 19 May 2021 (date of disembarking). Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2007347192759561&set=a.596682760492685

Case status

Investigations are concluded.

JLProject has traced several pushback victims from boat B3 and is searching for the others.

The case is in the hands of the lawyers and is going to court.