03/12/22: Landing south of Lesvos, 26 people pushed back

04.12.2022 / 16:56 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 3rd of December 2022
Case name: 2022_12_03_Eastern Med_1075
Situation: Landing south of Lesvos, 26 people pushed back

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Mediterranean / Aegean Sea
Summary of the Case:

In the morning of the 26th of November 2022 we were alerted by relatives of a group of 8 people who landed in the south of Lesvos. Among the 8 people were 3 pregnant women and 2 children. They reported that some of them need medical attention due to health problems.

At 18:34 CET we alerted Greek authorities and several NGOs and informed them about their need for medical assistance and their need for international protection.

At 18:53 CET Doctors without borders (MSF) answered by email that they would try to provide medical assistance.

Later the evening we receive the information that 22 people from this boat were found and assisted. But the people reported 26 people were probably pushed back to Turkey.

The Turkish coastguard confirmed in a phone call that there were 26 people in total rescued already on 2 December, 11 men, 12 women, 3 kids (1 boy, 2 girls). One of the women was pregnant. The nationalities were the same as of the missing group.

The Turkish Coastguard published later a rescue that fits to the group we were in contact with, stating that on December 2nd 2022 at 17:40 local time, they were alerted to two life rafts off the coast of İzmir’s Dikili district. They found 26 people in 2 life rafts who had been pushed back to Turkish territorial waters.

We did not manage to get in touch with the people who had been pushed back to Turkey.
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