06/01: 9 travellers stuck at the border zone of Bosnia and Croatia

07.01.2019 / 15:55 / Bosnia Croatia Land Border

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 6th of January 2019

Case name: 2019_06_01-AEG477
Situation: 9 travellers stuck at the border zone of Bosnia and Croatia
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Bosnia-Croatia border zone

Summary of the Case:

On Sunday, 6th of January, at 3:45pm CET, we were alerted to a group of 9 travellers, among them 2 women, who had tried to cross the border between Bosnia and Croatia and got stuck in the snow. At 4:41pm we managed to establish a connection to the travellers. They were since 2 days outside and freezing heavily. Two of them were not able to walk anymore. They sent us their GPS position. They were in a dangerous area due to minefields. At 4:45pm we called the Bosnian mountain rescue service. They stated they wouldn’t be allowed to intervene without official authorization. We couldn‘t establish a connection to two emergency numbers that they passed on to us. We called the mountain rescue service repeatedly and sent an email to the respective authorities to document the alert. We also alerted the search and rescue office in the Bosnian town Bihac, that was close to the location of the travellers. At 6:18pm they initiated the rescue. At 6:30pm, the group confirmed that they had been found by the police and were brought by taxis to Bihac.

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