<b>Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 31th July 2021</b> <i>Case name</i>: 2021_07_31-CM518 <i>Situation</i>: 87 travellers intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard. <i>Status of WTM Investigation</i>: Concluded <i>Place of Incident</i>: Central Mediterranean Sea <i>Summary of the Case:</i> In the morning of Saturday the 31st of July the Alarm Phone was called by a boat in distress which had departed from Libya during the night. The boat was carrying between 87 and 95 travellers including 19 women and 20 children. They told us that a grey boat was approaching them. After obtaining their GPS position at 12:32h CEST we alerted Libyan authorities and NGO search and rescue vessels and reconnaissance aircrafts. Soon after, the NGO Sea Watch informed us and authorities that they were heading in direction of the distress case. Unfortunately, at 13:00h an NGO reconnaissance aircraft informed us that the boat had already been intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard.

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