12/07: 11 travellers picked up by Greek coastguard on Strongily and 39 people attacked and intercepted by Turkish coastguard.

Verified

  In Distress   Interception

13.07.2019 / 15:04 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th of July 2019
Case name: 2019_07_12-AEG543
Situation: 39 travellers attacked and intercepted by Turkish coastguard and 11 travellers stranded on the island of Strongily, rescued by the Greek coastguard.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:: On Friday the 12th of July the Alarm Phone was alerted to two distress cases in the Aegean region. The first case concerned 39 travellers who reported having been attacked and intercepted by the Turkish coastguard. The second case concerned a group of 11 travellers stranded on the island of Strongily who were eventually rescued by the Greek coastguard.

In the night between the 11th and the 12th of July, at 01:19am CEST our shift team received a call from a boat in distress in the Aegean Sea, close to where the river Evros/Maritsa flows into the sea. The boat was carrying 39 travellers, including 4 women and 15 children. According to them, Turkish authorities had shot at them, beaten them up, taken their engine away, intercepted them and brought them back to Turkey. We could not get in touch with the travellers afterwards and assume they were still in detention in Turkey.

At 7:35 am CEST our shift team was alerted to a group of 11 travellers (3 families including 4 children, 1 infant, 3 women and 3 men) who were stranded on the inhabited island of Strongily. At 8am we informed the port-police in Kastellorizzo (the nearest inhabited island). At 9.20 am the rescue was confirmed.
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

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