09/08: Pushback of two groups of travellers, in total 61 people near Bodrum

10.08.2022 / 17:58 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 9th of August 2022
Case name: 2022_08_09_EasternMed_959
Situation: Pushback of two groups of travellers, in total 61 people near Bodrum
Place of Incident: Eastern Med
Summary of the Case:

On the 9th of August relatives alerted Alarm Phone to a boat with around 40 travellers on board that was in distress after having been pushed back from Greek waters. They reported that the engine had been removed and the boat demobilised after having been towed back to Turkish waters. They shared a location in Turkish waters and said that the people needed urgent assistance. Among the group were four babies and two pregnant women.

At 01:30 CEST we alerted the Turkish Coast Guard by email and a few minutes later by phone call.

Later, the Turkish Coastguard reported that on the 9th of August 2022, at 03.10 a.m. local time, they had found a group on board inflatable boats off the coast of Muğla’s Bodrum district. They had been pushed back to Turkish territorial waters by Greek assets. In totally 61 people on two inflatable boats were brought back to Turkey, among them had been the group we were alerted to.

We never managed to establish direct contact with the travellers themselves.
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • 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