20/10 Alarm Phone alerted to vessel in distress in the Aegean Sea, pull-back by Turkey

21.10.2016 / 18:55 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 20th of October 2016

Case name: 2016_10_20-AEG269
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 Case: On Thursday the 20th of October 2016, our Alarm Phone shift team received a message from a contact person who informed us about a boat that had already reached Greek waters but was ‘pulled-back’ by the Turkish coastguards. They had been returned already. We reached out to the travellers but were at first not able to get through. On Friday the 21st of October, one of our Alarm Phone members followed up with one of the contact persons. According to him, the Turkish coastguards had clearly engaged in a pull-back operation. There were 45 people on the boat, including 10 women and 4 children. On the 9th of November we received the last position that the boat-people had forwarded to the contact person. While the position indicates that they were still in Turkish waters, the contact person informed us that the boat had moved on afterwards, so that it is unclear where they were exactly when the Turkish coastguards intercepted. While the precise location of the vessel in question cannot be verified, is clear is that these practices of pull-back are not uncommon and occur regularly in the Aegean Sea.
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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