Three distress cases in the Aegean Sea, rescued/intercepted by Turkish coastguards

24.07.2015 / 16:08 / Aegean Sea, Turkey

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations - 23rd of July 2015

Case name: 2015_07_23-AEG24
Situation: 3 vessels in distress in the Aegean Sea, rescued/intercepted by Turkey
Status of WTM Investigations: Concluded
Place of Incidents: Aegean Sea, Turkey

Summary of the Cases: On Thursday the 23rd of July 2015, in the morning, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by Nawal Soufi’s activist collective to a vessel in distress in the Aegean Sea. The information provided were limited, merely stating that a vessel with 250 people on board had left Egypt on the 17th of July and had sent off a SOS call in the early hours of the day. Later we learned that the vessel had been rescued by the Turkish coastguard.

A few hours later, again through the same activist collective, we heard about a second vessel in distress, carrying 71 people. We reached out to the Greek coastguards who stated that they knew of a vessel in the same area and had informed the Turkish coastguard about the case. In a phone conversation with the Turkish coastguard we received the information that the group of travellers, who were in fact 80 people, were all rescued already.

Shortly afterwards, the activist collective alerted us to a third vessel in distress in the Aegean Sea. Apart from the passengers’ phone number and the vessel’s GPS position from several hours earlier, they could not provide any further details about the case. The travellers could not be reached. A few minutes later we received a confirmation that the third vessel had also been picked up by the Turkish coastguards.

Due to the limited information we had about all three vessels in distress, we cannot conclusively state whether the actions of the Turkish coastguards can be classified as rescue operations or interceptions.
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