12/10: 40 travellers rescued by the Turkish coast guard

13.10.2017 / 20:45 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th of October 2017

Case name: 2017_10_12-AEG312
Situation: 40 travellers rescued by the Turkish coast guard.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Thursday the 12th of October 2017, at 5.17am, a contact person alerted the Alarm Phone shift team to a group of travellers in distress, forwarding us their position and phone number. We called the travellers, and they informed us that they were 40 travellers in the boat, amongst them 25 children. Their engine had stopped working, and the water was entering the boat. They also told us that they could see a vessel ahead of them, but that the vessel was not approaching to help them. Soon after this conversation they sent us a new position which didn’t make sense when compared to the first position. The new position we received showed the travellers in Greek waters, according to our map on watchthemed.net. At 5.37am we called the Greek coast guard, and forwarded this new position. The Greek coast guard informed us that the position was in Turkish waters, and that even though they had a rescue vessel close to the location, they were waiting for the Turkish coast guard to carry out the rescue operation. In our next call to the travellers at 5.45am, they told us that the vessel of the Turkish coast guard was approaching. At 6.17am the contact person confirmed that the travellers had been rescued and brought to Turkey.
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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