16/12: two boats in distress, around 70 travellers rescued to Greece

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  In Distress   Boza

17.12.2019 / 21:12 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th of December 2019

Case name: 2019_12_16-AEG638
Situation: two boats in distress, one near Lesvos, one near Samotraki, both rescued to Greece
Status of WTM Investigation: concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On 16 December in the morning around 06:00h CET our shiftteam was alerted to a boat with 32 travellers and 11 kids on their way to Lesvos, as a relative told us. We could never establish a direct contact to the boat, but finally at 15:56h we received the information by the relatives that these people had arrived safely on Lesvos.
At the same day and also in the morning our team was alerted to a boat with 35 travellers, including 7 children, a small baby and 10 women. They were in distress near to Samothraki. At 7:30h CET we informed the Greek coastguard by telephone and email, who confirmed at 9:13h the rescue of the boat in question.
Last update: 19:07 Dec 30, 2019
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

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