13/06: 45 travelers landed on Samos island

14.06.2019 / 18:13 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th of June 2019

Case name: 2019_06_13-AEG536
Situation: around 45 people landed on Samos island and were picked up by the port police
: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Thursday, 13th of June at 3.10am CEST our shift team received the information that a boat carrying approximately 45 travelers was heading towards Samos island. We repeatedly tried to call the people on board but could not establish a connection and at 4.05am we learned that our contact person had also lost contact. Shortly afterwards we got through to them and via an Arabic translator we were informed that they had arrived on the island and nobody was injured or sick.
At 4.42am we received their current GPS location and informed the port police of Samos via phone call and e-mail. At 4.59am our contact person informed us that the group was being picked up by the police, but we could not get a direct confirmation by the travelers themselves for their final rescue on land.

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