20/01: Boat engine stolen by Hellenic Coast Guard and pushed-back to Turkey

21.01.2022 / 11:59 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 20th of January 2022

Case name: 20220120-AEG855
Situation: 18 people pushed back by Hellenic Coast Guard, their engine and and fuel stolen, then left adrift, later rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard to Bodrum.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Med

Summary of the Case:
Just before midnight on the 20th of January, Alarm Phone received a call from a relative, alerting us to a group of 5 women, 2 children and 11 men in distress after being brutally intercepted by the Hellenic Coast Guard. According to the testimony of one of the people on board, the travelers had been in Turkish waters, south of Kara Ada island, when the Hellenic Coast Guard stopped them, threatened them with weapons and sticks, then removed their engine, stole their fuel, and left them adrift with nothing.

We immediately tried to establish direct contact with the people on board, however without avail. At 23:47 CET we contacted the Turkish Coast Guard and gave the GSP co-ordinates. At 1:50 CET the Turkish Coast Guard informed us that they had rescued all 18 travelers and were taking them to Bodrum.
Later that day we received a call from the travelers, explaining that they are safely on land now, however they were taken to a camp in Bodrum where the rooms are flooded with water and the conditions are extremely unsanitary.

A translated testimony from one of the travelers: We had been driving for 6 kilometres, and that after 6 kilometres we were discovered by the Greeks, they had caught us when we were still in Turkish waters, nether-the-less, we were attacked by the Greek coast guards, I think they were the Greek Coast Guards because they were speaking in both Greek and English. They threatened us with weapons, they took our motor away as always, and they took the petrol as well, and then they left us like that in the water. We were 18people, 2 people from Lebanon and 16 from Palestine. We hadn’t been hit, and both our telephones nor our wallets were not taken away. But we were afraid, which is why we didn’t film nor take photos. In the end, before they started driving away, [the Hellenic Coast Guard] showed us the middle finger to say “Fuck you, we let you die here”. Then our contact person called the Turkish coast guard and then after one or two hours we got picked up.
Last update: 00:43 Aug 10, 2022
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

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