28/11: Alarm Phone alerted to 1 distress case near Lesvos, went back to Turkey

29.11.2015 / 11:46 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 28th of November 2015

Case name: 2015_11_28-AEG141
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 1 distress case near Canakkale, Turkey Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Saturday the 28th of November 2015 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 1 distress cases in the Aegean Sea. At 8:51am we received a distress call from a boat carrying 35 travellers near Canakkale, Turkey. They had left from Canakkale half an hour earlier, but had soon encountered problems with their engine. Moreover, water was entering the boat. Unfortunately, the travellers could not pass us their GPS position, but we forwarded their number and their distress call to the Turkish coastguard. The Turkish coastguard seemed cooperative, but also told us to ask the travellers to call 185. We tried to reach out to the travellers again, but could not reach them. Only at 10:30am they answered our calls and explained that they had reached land by themselves. All travellers had landed safe and sound in Babakale, but most of them had been arrested by the Turkish police upon their arrival.

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