19/10/22: 23 people pushed back in Muğla region

20.10.2022 / 18:52 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th of October 2022

Case name: 2022_10_19_Eastern Med_1037

Situation: 23 people pushed back in Muğla region

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Eastern Med / Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

In the morning of the 19th of October 2022, we were alerted to people in distress in the Aegean Sea, south of Kos. We did not manage to get in direct contact with the people, who were reported to be 25 people adrift at sea. We were alerted by different people about this case, who all stated that they had already called both Greek and Turkish authorities.

At 10:35 CEST, we alerted the Turkish coastguard, who informed us about a rescue near Kos of a group that had been pushed back from Greek waters.

Later that day, they gave further information and stated that they rescued 23 people from an inflatable boat off the coast of Muğla at 10.50 local time. Most of the people on board came from Mali, Mauretania and Cameroon. The people had been pushed back from Greek waters and were drifting without engine.

We could not get in touch with the people on board, and so we could not get any detailed accounts on the human rights violations they had been facing.

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