Approximately 40 people in distress near Mytilene/Lesvos, all rescued

08.03.2015 / 16:26 / Mytilene Strait, Lesvos, Greece

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation – 5th of March 2015

Case name: 2015_03_05-AEG4
Situation: Vessel in distress in the Mytilene Strait
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Off the coast of Lesvos/Greece

Summary of the Case:The Alarm Phone shift team received a distress call from the Aegean Sea in the evening of the 5th of March 2015. The phone call came from people on a vessel located between Turkey and the Greek island of Lesvos. They suggested that there were around 40 passengers on board, amongst them women, children and babies. They could not forward their exact position but said that they were close to the island and were able to see houses, moving cars, as well as the lights of what appeared to be the airport. They asked the shift team to inform the coastguard to conduct a rescue operation. Presumably due to the lack of credit on the phone, the call broke off.

The shift team contacted the Rescue Centre in Mytilene and passed on the received information. They stated that the people on the boat had reached them already and that they were starting a search and rescue mission. The shift team also notified the Hellenic Rescue Team and the UNHCR. The people on the boat could not be reached anymore on the phone. The shift team was then contacted by the Central Office of the coastguards and cooperatively asked to pass on the phone number of the passengers since they were unable to reach them. It however, turned out to be the identical number. They informed the shift team that they had found a group that had arrived on land already and now needed to verify whether it was the group in question. Hours later, the shift team received another call from the Central Office which asked whether we were from Watch The Med. They stated that the rescue operation had been concluded and confirmed that they had found a group of mainly Syrian refugees near the airport of Mytilene. All found, amongst them children, were in good health condition and safe.
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