22/12: 10 travellers pushed back from close to Simi

23.12.2020 / 11:25 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd of December 2020
Case name: 2020_12_22-AEG739
Situation: 10 travellers
close to Simi, attacked and pushed back by the Helenic coastguard.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Tuesday the 22nd of December, a call alerted us to a group of 10 people in Turkish waters close to the Greek island of Simi. We were informed that they were in bad condition but we were unable to establish contact with the boat. At 12:10 CET, a relative informed us that the Turkish Coast Guard had rescued the people. When we were finally able to establish contact with them days later, they reported having been attacked and threatened with weapons by the Hellenic Coast Guard. The whole group was put on a Coast Guard vessel and later forced into life rafts. They reported:

“We have been attacked by the Hellenic Coast Guard. They have found us and forced us to get on their boat. They threatened us with weapons all the time. Then they took the phones and other belongings of the men. The whole group was kept during approx. 4 hours on the boat of the Greek Coast Guard. Then they forced us again with their guns into life rafts. There were several of them. One life raft was broken, so the men had to swim in the water in order to prevent it from sinking. A relative then activated the Turkish police who sent a boat and rescued us.”

Last update: 11:29 Mar 30, 2021

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