04/03: 19 travellers pushed back to Turkey near Kos

05.03.2022 / 19:51 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 4th of March 2022

Case name: 20220304-Eastern Med - 864

Situation: 19 travellers (among them 3 women and 5 children) were pushed back from Greece to Turkey near Kos, back in Turkey

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:On 4 March 2022 the Alarm Phone received a call from relatives of about 20 travellers in the Aegean Sea. They had lost contact after they had received a GPS-location in the area of Kos in Turkish waters. At 5:40h CET we were able to establish a direct contact to the travellers.

At 5:49h CET the shift team alerted Turkish coastguard by phone and by email. The Turkish coastguard confirmed later the day that they rescued 3 different groups, in total 76 people from two life-rafts and a rubber boat in the same region. Later on they confirmed that one of these groups consisted of 19 travellers which was the group we had been in contact with.

Later we learned that they had already been pushed back three times before. They were extremely exhausted and did not want to report details of their suffering anymore.

Last update: 20:19 May 30, 2022

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