Group of women and children in distress on Nimos Island/Greece, rescue presumed

17.08.2015 / 15:50 / Aegean Sea, Nimos Island

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations - 16th of August 2015

Case name: 2015_08_16-AEG44
Situation: Group of women and children stranded on Nimos Island/Greece
Status of WTM Investigations: Concluded, rescue presumed
Place of Incidents: Aegean Sea

Summary of the case: On Sunday the 16th of August 2015, in the late afternoon, the Alarm Phone was contacted by Nawal Soufi’s activist collective and alerted to a distress case on Nimos Island/Greece. They were 5 women and 2 babies who had arrived on the island about two and a half hours earlier. They were unable to walk and had run out of food and water. One of the babies needed urgent medical care. We contacted the Greek coastguards on Rhodes Island and passed on the details, including a phone number and their GPS position. The Hellenic Rescue Team said that they would look into the case and also the authorities in Rhodes stated that they would contact the port police on Symi Island, the closest island to the uninhabited island of Nimos. A few hours later the port authorities on Symi Island confirmed that they knew of the group and said that there were 20-30 people on Nimos Island. They had been able to transfer about half of the group to Symi already. Later we were told that even more, around 60 people, had been transferred from Nimos to Symi, including many women, children and newborn. While we cannot fully verify whether the group in question was amongst them, their rescue can be presumed.
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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