20/07: Two people missing after pushback of 17 travellers

21.07.2022 / 15:30 / Eastern Med

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

Case name: 2022_07_20-EasternMed-936

Situation: 17 travellers pushed back after arriving to Rhodes Island. Two travellers remain missing after they attempted to swim for help, the rest of the travellers were intercepted to Turkey.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea
Summary of the Case: On Wednesday the 20th of July 2022, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 17 travellers in distress in the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Rhodes. According to the relative, the travellers had arrived to Rhodes on the 12th but had been put on a raft by the Greek coastguard and returned to sea, where they had been abandoned for two days. On the third day, two of the travellers had attempted to swim to get help for the rest and had not returned. On the 15th of July a merchant vessel came by and alerted the Greek coastguard. The Greek coastguard had then pulled them further away from Rhodes into Turkish waters. The relative informed us that the travellers on the raft had then been intercepted by the Turkish coastguard but that the two people who went swimming remained missing. We informed both the Turkish and the Greek coastguard about the two missing people, requesting that they investigate the situation. We were not able to find out what happened to the two missing people, and we fear the worst.

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