26/08: Three People stuck in the Forest in Greece

27.08.2022 / 15:52 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th of August 2022

Case name: 2022_08_26_Eastern Med_980
Situation: Three People stuck in the Forest in Greece - two People taken by the Police, one Person in medical Distress is missing
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Med

Summary of the Case:
At noon on the 26th of August Alarm Phone was informed about three people who got stuck in the forest in Greece near Komotini. One of the three had a medical problem with his kidneys and urgently needed medical help. At 14:37 CEST we alerted the Greek authorities, called several border gurad stations in the area and asked the people in distress to call 112 themselves. In the morning of the 27th the people in distress told us the police didn't show up. In the morning of the 28th the person who was in medical distress told us that he was alone now, as the police came during the night and took the two people he was travelling with and left him behind. He stressed again that he urgently needs medical treatment. On the 28th of August we lost contact to the person in distress and couldn't find out what happened to him.

https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1563201328624861184

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