Distress call from the Aegean Sea, vessel arrived safely

30.05.2015 / 12:51 / Aegean Sea, near Lesvos

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation – 29th of May 2015

Case name: 2015_05_29-AEG11
Situation: Vessel in distress in the Aegean Sea, arrived safely
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Lesvos/Greece

Summary of the Case: At around 4am on Friday the 29th of May, the Alarm Phone shift team received a phone call from someone in Germany who very anxiously reported that his mother was on a vessel and in distress. He was in contact with her and knew that she had left Turkey as a part of a group an hour and a half earlier, trying to reach the Greek island of Lesvos. He then lost contact to her and was unable to receive further information.

Our shift team immediately turned to the Greek rescue agency in Mytilene/Lesvos and alerted them to the vessel in distress. At around 5am our contact person in Germany called us again. Fortunately, his mother had safely arrived on land. These good news were also passed on to the Greek rescue agency.

This is merely one of thousands of arrivals on Greek islands in the past few days and weeks. The day before we received the distress call, about 750 refugees arrived on the island of Lesvos alone and the day after approximately 555 refugees arrived. The situation on Lesvos is catastrophic with needed support and resources for the newly arrived desperately lacking. Together with solidarity groups on the island we call on the EU and its member states to show solidarity with the people on the move and with Greece by granting the newly arrived refugees easy access to their territories.

See also our previous report: http://watchthemed.net/reports/view/132

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