02/08: Two travellers stuck on small Turkish island, taken back to Turkey

03.08.2019 / 22:13 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd of August 2019
Case name: 2019_08_02-AEG552
Situation: Two travellers stuck on Kizil Ada Asasi, taken back to Turkey by the Turkish coastguard.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Friday the 2nd of August at 5.00am CEST, the Alarm Phone was alerted by a contact person to two people who were stuck on the Turkish rocky island Kizil Ada Asasi. We immediately reached the travellers who told us that they were not able to get off the island. We therefore informed the Turkish coastguard who confirmed that they would send a boat to pick them up. For the following hours we stayed in contact with the travellers who managed to move to the other side of the island, and sent the updated position of the travellers to the Turkish coastguard. After this we lost the contact to the travellers. At 8.10pm we were informed by the Turkish coastguard that the travellers had been rescued and taken to Marmaris. Only two days later did reach the travellers again. They told us that they were safe, and had been taken first to the police station and then to a hospital, but that they had both been released.

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