25/06: 30 travellers diappeared in the Aegean Sea

26.06.2020 / 15:27 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 25th June 2020
Case name: 2020_06_25-AEG682
Situation: 30 travellers disappear, pushed-back? rescued? or drowned?
Status of WTM Investigation:
Place of Incident: Aegean sea

Summary of the Case:
On the 25th of June, travellers of a boat with 30 people (15 men, 10 women, 3 of them pregnant,
and 5 children) called the emergency line of Alarm Phone several times. They told the shift-team that a Greek boat came close to their boat, took their gasoline away and left again. At 16:37h CEST they called back to tell that their boat was taking in water and that they were in distress. The shift-team emailed and called Greek Coast Guards (HCG) who answer that they "always rescue". The travellers us called back to tell that they could see the Greek coastguard boat but that they were not rescuing them, but only observing them. This information was denied by the Greek coastguard's headquarters, who told Alarm Phone that no coastguard boat was close to the position we transmitted.
In the next two hours, the travelers called continuously and sent the shift team their GPS position. They were afraid of drowning, they screamed out of fear of dying. At 19:07h CEST, the shift-team was informed by the people on board, that the HCG ship AZ-615 was right in front of their boat. At 19:30h CEST, they informed us that the HCG was right beside them and waiting for another ship to finish the rescue operation. The travellers were now calmer and happy that they would be rescued. During the next hours nothing changed, it became dark and the travelers could not see anything, and began again to panic. The last contact the Alarm Phone had with the boat was around 21:00h CEST. At 21:30h CEST; the shift-team called again the HCG who said they would investigate and that we should call them later. One hour later we received the same answer from the Greek coastguard. The shift-team decided to call the Turkish Coast Guard (TCG) to check if they had more information: the officer said he received an email 2 hours previously and got information from the HCG about an ongoing pushback at the Greek/Turkish border. He confirmed exactly what happened: There was a HCG vessel which was not acting, but just waiting.
The night shift tried all night to call the boat without reaching the travellers. HCG said that they are still investigating without confirming any rescue. TCG did not have any new information.
In the morning, the morning shift team called HCG, who said they "stopped searching because they couldn't find the boat and (thought) that maybe the TCG rescued" them. The shift-team once againg called TCG, who still said that they had no information. During the morning, a Turkish officer said that the TCG saw how the HCG rescued the boat at 7:30h CEST. This sounded hopeful, but it is contradictory to what the HCG told us. All day long the different shift tteams tried to find out what happened, without success. Our shift teams never had contact again with the travelers, neither confirmation about any rescue from HCG.

We are still investigating the detailed developments and will include potential updates into this report


Twitter chronology :
2020-06-25
18:05 : https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1276215013154467840
18:49 https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1276225999680798720
20:05 https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1276245235685867521
22:35 https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1276282920102232066
2020-06-26
18:30h : https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1276546643341520896
Last update: 18:28 Oct 28, 2020
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