23/03: Two people missing at the Greek/Turkish land border

24.03.2022 / 20:10 / Balkans

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 23rd of March 2022

Case name: 2022_03_23-Eastern Med - 870
Situation: Two people, one person with serious injuries, no food, nor water, at the Greek/Turkish land border. After their phone died we couldn't find out about their fate. The border police told us they didn't find anyone on spot.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Med

Summary of the Case:

On the 23rd of March we were informed about two people at the Greek/Turkish landborder, one person with serious injuries, no food, nor water, the battery of their phone was nearly empty. UNHCR Protection Unit in Thessaloniki told us they were forwarding the information to the local police and authorities, but commented that they don't always answer to them.At 10:37 CET we call Didymoticho Border Police station who copies the names and position of the people in distress.At 11:16 CET we lost contact to the people in distress and never manage to establish the contact again.Didymoticho Border Police tells us they didn't find anyone in the area of the positions we send. As we lost contact to the people we are unable to verify what happened to them afterwards.

See our tweets about the case.:

Last update: 20:15 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