28/3: 38 travellers capsized close to Chios, rescued by the Greek coast guard

29.03.2019 / 11:16 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 28th of March 2019
Case name: 2019_03_28-AEG500
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 38 people in urgent distress. Two young men went missing, but are reported to be alive.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Thursday 28th of March at 1.37am CET our shift team was alerted by a contact person to a group of 38 travellers in distress, including several women and children, the youngest only three months old. The contact person stressed the urgency of the situation, as the boat had crashed into a rock, and the people had fallen into the water. We were not able to reach the travellers, but at 1.47am we alerted the Greek coast guard to the situation, and at 2.30am we informed the Chios Port Authority as well. At 2.54am the Greek coast guard informed us that they had carried out the search and rescue, and that the travellers were safe. However, when they arrived to the port of Chios, some of the travellers reported that two young men from the group, a 25-year old Palestinian and a 21-year old from Yemen, had gone missing. Following this information the operation continued, looking for the two missing people at sea, at land and with an aircraft. On the 2nd of April, after the Alarm Phone had made the case public, we received the information that the two people were still alive, but hiding from the authorities in order to avoid having their finger prints taken. This shows the extend to which the EUropean anti-migration politics forces people to risk their health, even after such traumatic events, out of fear for future deportations.
Last update: 21:12 Dec 11, 2019
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • 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