21/11: 92 people pushed back from Greece to Turkey

22.11.2021 / 15:27 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21th of November 2021

Case name: 20211121-Eastern Med-839

Situation: A boat with 92 people on the way from Turkey to Italy was pushed back to Turkey by the Hellenic Coast Guard and later picked up by the Turkish Coastguards.Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

In the late evening of the 21st of November we were informed about 92 people in a drifting sailing yacht. According to the relative who informed us, the people on board were on their way from Turkey to Italy, when their engine stopped due to failure. We tried to reach the people on board without success. At 01:08CET we forwarded the information about the people in distress to the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) Piraeus.

At 13:42 CET the next day, 22nd of November, the Hellenic Coast Guard informed us that they finished their Search and Rescue Operation as they didn't find the boat. Only ten minutes later a relative told us that the people were apparently pushed back to Turkey. The Turkish Coast Guard told us they rescued 115 people after a pushback and brought them to Izmir.

On the second of December we had a phone call with one person who was on board of the boat. He said that they have been on a boat with 92 people and were catched from the greek CG and they were on the CG ship of the greeks with also other people who got pushed back, in total they were 125 people on the CG boat. He reports that they called the Turkish CG then and were picked up by the Turkish Coastguard and were detained and in quarantine camps for some days . The Greek CG beat them up and the phones and money and belongings were stolen by them. One person could hide the phone so that they could call the Turkish CG later.

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