21/03: 25 travellers rescued to Lesvos

22.03.2018 / 18:55 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st of March 2018

Case name: 2018_21_03-AEG350
Situation: 25 travellers south of Lesvos in distress, rescued to Greece
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Wednesday, 21st of March, at 1:53am CET, we got alerted by a contact person to a boat in distress south of Lesvos, carrying 25 people. We couldn’t establish contact to the boat. At 2:17am we called the Greek Coast Guard in Piraeus and informed them about the case. We also sent an email to the respective authorities to document the alert. In the ongoing we continuously tried to reach the boat. At 3:17am we called again in Piraeus. The Coast Guard informed us that they hadn’t found the people yet but would search with two assets. At 4:13am and 5:42am we received calls from the Coast Guards stating that they could not find the people yet. We still couldn’t reach the people directly.
At 5:44am, a contact person informed us that the boat had landed safely on Lesvos. At 5:57am the contact person forwarded us the info that the people would be with the Greek police now. At 6:10am we reached the people and they confirmed that they had arrived safely.
At 7:41am we also received the information from local contacts that a boat, carrying 29 people, had landed near Ligonari, in the south of Lesvos, around 5:00am.

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