17/3 Alarm Phone alerted to 1 emergency situation in the Aegean Sea, Chios

18.03.2016 / 18:22 / Aegean Sea, Chios

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th of March 2016

Case name: 2016_03_17-AEG235
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 1 emergency situation in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Thursday the 17th of March 2016, at 10.20pm, our shift team was alerted by activist Nawal Soufi to a vessel in distress. She forwarded coordinates of a vessel that was on its way to Chios but still in Turkish waters, as well as a phone number of passengers on that vessel. We immediately reached out to the boat-people but could not reach them. We then tried to contact them via WhatsApp which was also not possible. Due to the limited information we tried to retrieve more details from Nawal but she was unable to send us any further information. Since we did not know whether or not the GPS coordinates were accurate and since we could not reach the travellers, we did not notify the coastguards. Coastguards of both Greece and Turkey have repeatedly informed us that they would only launch rescue operations if the information/coordinates could be verified. Often, GPS positions that are passed on through social media are outdated and thus misleading for authorities. Since we could not reach Nawal again, we asked her activist colleagues to find out more about the distress situation. However, more information could not be obtained and so the only option our shift teams had was to repeatedly try to contact the travellers. At 11.52pm the activist group United Rescue informed us about a boat that was said to have capsized near Chios. The coordinates they had differed so that it is hard to tell whether this was the same boat in question. Shortly after midnight they told us that the boat they had heard about had safely reached Chios. At 00.33am, we finally heard back from the boat-people. They wrote ‘thank god’ and later ‘I’m fine’. We asked whether they had all reached the island safely but we did not receive a response. We tried to call the number but it was not reachable. Then, at 00.45am, someone from the Nawal activist group informed us that the boat was safe. At 00.48am we again received WhatsApp messages from the boat-people, suggesting that they were fine.
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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