02/08: One person injured near Sea Santa at the Greek-Turkish land border

03.08.2022 / 17:11 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd of August 2022
Case name: 2022_08_02_EasternMed_955
Situation: One person injured near Sea Santa at the Greek-Turkish land border
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Med, Evros Region

Summary of the Case:

On the 2nd of August 2022 the Alarm Phone was alerted by relatives to a man who was injured in the Greek mountains near Nea Santa. The relatives informed us that the person could not move anymore as he was injured and in urgent need of medical assistance. There was no possibility for us to establish a direct contact to the injured person, because he no longer had a functioning phone.

At 16:48 CEST we alerted Greek authorities, as well as Frontex, UNHCR, and several Greek NGOs by email. He was an asylum seeker from Syria and so we also informed them that he was in need of international protection. After sending the email, we started calling the responsible police department in Sapes.

The next morning we learned that the Greek Refugee Council (GCR) had also become active in this case. At 12:48 CEST the next day, relatives informed us that they had been contacted by other travellers who had passed by the location where their family member was, and told them that he was still at the same spot - with a broken bone, unable to move and in urgent need of medical assistance. It was the third day that he was there, and the second day that there was no food left, just water according to the relative. According to them, he had broken his arm as a result of an accident (falling) and also sustained an injury on his leg because another group of migrants had beaten him in order to rob him the day before. Finally, another group of migrants saw him and carried him with a plastic sheet for 5 hours, in order to bring him close to a road, so that it would be easier for an ambulance to find him.

In the end, we learned from GCR that the man had been found and was able to get medical treatment and to apply for asylum. This is one of the rare cases where we did not get witnesses of another pushback of an injured and very vulnerable person.

Twitter:
*3/08 @2:48pm CEST >>> https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1554841572897918976
*4/08 @8:05am CEST >>> https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1555102544795516928?s=20&t=CCr748z9SgJ4D2FB4et1gA
*4/08 @5:15pm CEST >>> https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1555210737299120137?s=20&t=3ecg8845MVUa6vmnWQaCqA]

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