15/06 45 stranded on Lesvos feared pushback, but were eventually taken into quarantine

16.06.2020 / 18:27 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 15th of June 2020
Case name: 2020_06_15-AEG678
Situation: 45 stranded on Lesvos feared pushback, but were eventually taken into quarantine
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

45 people, including women and children, had arrived on Lesvos in the early hours of the morning of 15 June. They had split up into two groups were hiding out in the woods. They contacted us about 10:30 CEST because they were stuck and they told us they were afraid that they would be pushed back to Turkey as the Greek coastguard has a practice of placing people in "liferafts" and letting them drift back across the strait. We contacted the police, the UNHCR and the Greek coastguard. We made sure that the local authority's knew that we knew where the people were and that we were watching them. We were clearly able to document that they were on the island. We kept the pressure up on the authorities and were later able to confirm that they had been taken into quarantine. They now face the interminable wait for asylum in Europe's squalid and makeshift refugee camps in Greece. We hope that their suffering will end soon.

Last update: 17:30 Oct 28, 2020

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