16/03: Alarmphone in contact with 12 travellers stranded on Greek island of Pasas; rescued to Chios

17.03.2017 / 14:49 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th of March 2017

Case name: 2017_03_16-AEG280
Situation: Alarmphone in contact with 12 travellers stranded on Greek island of Pasas; rescued to Chios
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Thursday the 16th of March 2017 at 1.30am, a contact person forwarded the phone number and GPS position of a group in distress to us, who had stranded on the tiny Greek island of Pasas. At 1.45am, we established direct contact to the group and received an updated position. At 2am, we called the Greek coastguard in Piraeus and asked them to rescue the travellers from the uninhabited island. At 2.09am, the contact person informed us, that the travellers were moving in the direction of the well-visible church on the island of Pasas. We asked him to provided us with updated GPS information as soon as they have arrived there. At 2.17am, we sent an email to the Greek coastguard, confirming the information we had already forwarded via phone. At 4.05am, we talked again with the contact person and informed him, that the coastguard might only pick up the travellers after sunrise. At 6.30am, another contact person informed us about the same group. At 6.42am, we talked to the Greek coastguard again and they confirmed to us that the group of 12 travellers had been picked up and brought to the island of Chios. Afterwards, we informed both contact person and forwarded a link to the Welcome 2 Europe guide to the travellers.
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