30/11: 13 people stranded on Lesvos, while a missing child was found, the mother and two siblings were pushed back to Turkey

01.12.2022 / 16:36 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 30th of November 2022
Case name: 2022_11_30_1073
Situation: 13 people stranded on Lesvos, while a missing child was found the mother and two siblings were pushed back to Turkey
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Mediterranean / Aegean Sea
Summary of the Case:

On 30th of November 2022 we were alerted by 13 people, among them a women, mother of three kids who had lost one of her kids. They reported to be in need of medical assistance. At 11:33 CET we alerted Greek authorities and several NGOs by email.

Already at 11:42 CET Doctors without borders (MSF) responded that they would send a team to assist the people in need of medical assistance.

It turned out that the initial group had been bigger than 13 people. Finally MSF found the missing child, but not the mother and the two siblings. In total they assisted 30 people who reported that part of the initial group remained missing, among them the mother with the two kids.

At 20:00 CET we called the Turkish Coastguard. They said that they have saved 12 people around 15:00 local time, north of Lesvos on life rafts. They were brought to Canakkale, according to the Turkish coastguard.

The next day at 17:10 CET we received an email by MSF in which they confirmed that on 30th November 2022, their team had provided emergency medical and psychological assistance to 30 people in need. According to MSF the asylum seekers had been transferred to Megala Therma Quarantine Camp by the Police. One person had been referred, through ambulance service, to Mytilene hospital, for medical emergency. Within the group there was a minor (female girl) about 4 years old who seemed to be unaccompanied. The group reported that the child arrived together with her mother and two young siblings, but they went missing. The little girl was brought to a shelter for unaccompanied minors.
Finally we receive a confirmation by the people that the mother and two of her children are definitely back in Turkey. We didn’t manage to establish contact to any of the 12 people who ended pushed back to Turkey.

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