14/12: 50 people stranded in the Aegean Sea, rescued to Turkey

15.12.2017 / 16:58 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 3rd of October 2017

Case name: 2017_12_14-AEG323
Situation: 50 people stranded in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Thursday, the 14th of December 2017, at around 3am, our Alarm Phone shift team received a message from a person, informing us that a boat had capsized in the Aegean Sea and the passengers, 50 in total and including 20 children, had rescued themselves onto some rocks in the sea. We received the GPS coordinates of the people and they showed them very close to Dikili/Bademli, the Turkish mainland. We spoke to the Turkish coastguards at 3.05am and they said that they had information about the situation but could not get near the rocks as it was too dark. They said they would launch a rescue operation at sunrise. At 5.37am, they said that they would start around 6am with the operation and at 6.53am they confirmed that their boats would soon reach the rocks and start evacuating the people. Our contact person confirmed that they could see the boats approaching. At 7.11am he told us that two boats had arrived and begun to evacuate the people. According to him, everyone was safe.

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