14/09: 2 boats in distress, one group stranded on Symi/Greece, a second group rescued to Italy

15.09.2019 / 14:56 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 14th of September 2019
Case name: 2019_09_14-AEG573
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to migrant groups in distress in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 14th of September 2019, the Alarm Phone was alerted to two boats in distress. The first one with 35 people on board stranded on Symi/Greece. The second one with 61 people on board rescued to Italy.

Case 1: At 6.08am CEST, the Alarm Phone received information from a contact person about a group consisting of 35 people, including 9 women and 7 children who needed help after they had stranded on Symi Island in Greece. We alerted the Greek coastguards at 6.22am who asked us to inform the local police. We did that at 6.24am and at 7.30am the stranded group confirmed that they were being picked up by the Greek coastguards and transferred.

Case 2: At 8.45am, a person called the Alarm Phone who said that his relatives were missing at sea. The 61 people, mostly families from Iraq had left Greece by boat 3 days earlier to reach Italy. The boat had left on Wednesday morning, between 9-11am, from the Greek island of Zakynthos. We called the Greek coastguards at 9.15am and they confirmed that they would look into the situation. At 9.22am, the Greek authorities called us to state that MRCC Rome had located a boat that might be the boat in question. They asked us to contact MRCC Rome. We called MRCC Rome at 9.28am and they said that a rescue was ongoing. At 10.24am, MRCC Rome confirmed the rescue of about 60 people from Iraq on a sailing boat. At 11.55am, the relative called us in great happiness, confirming that his relatives had been rescued to Italy.
Last update: 15:02 Oct 05, 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