14/05: 40 travellers returned to Turkey and imprisoned

15.05.2018 / 17:07 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 14th of May 2018

Case name: 2018_05_14-AEG387
Situation: 40 travellers returned to Turkey
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Monday the 14th of May, at 02.42am, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a contact person to a group of 40 travellers, forwarding us their phone number and position. The position showed that the travellers were in Turkish waters, 20 km from the Greek rescue zone. The motor on the boat had stopped working. We were not able to establish direct contact to the travellers, but as the contact person stressed the urgency of the situation, at 02.50am we passed on the information we had to the Turkish coast guard, who confirmed that they would start a search and rescue operation. At 03.35am we called back the Turkish coast guard, and they told us that they were ten minutes from the position we had forwarded them. At 04.50am we received a new position via the contact person, this time showing the boat in what appeared to be Greek waters. However, when we called the Greek coast guard to inform them about the boat, they insisted that the boat was still in Turkish waters. At 05.40am the Turkish coast guard called our shift team to inform us that they had carried out a rescue operation in the area, and that the travellers would be taken to Izmir. The following day the contact person confirmed that the travellers were being held in prison in Turkey.

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