06/11/22: 15 people arrived on Lesvos as part of a bigger group, some of them stayed while others were pushed back to Turkey

07.11.2022 / 12:58 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 6th of November 2022
Case name: 2022_11_06_Eastern Med_1051
Situation: 15 people arrived on Lesvos as part of a bigger group, some of them stayed while others were pushed back to Turkey
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Mediterranean / Aegean Sea
Summary of the Case:
 
In the morning of the 5th November 2022 our team was alerted by 15 people, among them 8 men, 2 women and 5 children, who had stranded on Lesvos, in the north west of the island, in the area of Skoutaros.
They reported that they don’t have food, neither water. They were cold and some of them were in need of medical attention due to health problems. At 9:30 CET we alerted Greek authorities and several NGOs about their situation.

At 10:07 CET we received an answer from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) who declared that an MSF Team is going to the location to provide medical assistance to the people in need.

At 12:20 CET we received an updated location by the group and at 12:30 CET forwarded it via email to the authorities.

Two days later, on 8 November we could manage to get in touch again with the people and they explained that a part of their group (a family from Afghanistan) got pushed back from Lesvos to Turkey. We managed to bring them in contact with the Turkish NGO Multeci Der, while they were in a hospital in Çanakkale were 2 of their children received medical treatment, to follow-up on their legal situation in Turkey. Nevertheless we could not get a detailed description of the events at the 6th November from them.
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

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