08/03: 15 travellers pushed back after their arrival on Chios

09.03.2022 / 19:57 / Eastern Med

Case name: 20220308-Eastern Med-866

Situation: 15 travellers pushed back after they had stranded on Chios, forced into sea again and later rescued from Turkish waters.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:On 8 March 2022 at 3:30h CET the Alarm Phone was alerted by relatives for 15 travellers (including 4 women, 7 children and a baby) who had arrived on Chios and still feared to be pushed back. At 3:38h CET we managed to establish contact with the group who were scared and reported to have landed shortly before on Chios. We were not able to establish the contact any more and did not receive their exact location.

Finally in the morning we managed to find the location on Chios via relatives of the travellers and alerted authorities in Greece - without having been able to reestablish contact to the travellers again.

A few minutes later at 10:44h CET we relatives forwarded a location again at sea. They reported that the travellers had been pushed back after having been found by police on the island.

At 12:20h CET finally the Turkish coastguard confirmed to have rescued 26 travellers, among them many women and children in that area. They stated that the 15 people we were asking for were among this group.

When we managed to get in contact with the travellers some days later, they reported that it was their fourth attempt to flee to Greece and they were again attacked and pushed back to Turkey.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1501085964487348228 - 7:42h CET on 8 Mar 2022

Last update: 20:18 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