09/12/22: 26 people rescued and 15 people pushed back after being stranded on Lesvos in the northwest of the island

10.12.2022 / 21:02 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 9th of December 2022

Case name: 2022_12_09_Eastern Med_1084

Situation: 26 people rescued and 15 people pushed back after being stranded on Lesvos in the northwest of the island

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Eastern Med / Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

In the morning of 9 December 2022 we were alerted by relatives to a group of 19 people who had stranded in the north-west of Lesvos. We manage to get in contact with the people who reported that they were in need of medical assistance and were seeking to apply for asylum. We received also their GPS-location. At 8:02 CET, we alerted Greek authorities and several NGOs by email. At 8:17 CET we received an answer by email from Medécins Sans Frontièrs (MSF) declaring that their team is going to the location to provide medical assistance to the people in need.

In the evening, MSF confirmed that they did interventions in the south and in the north of the island. In the south they found 45 people and in the north 26 people from two different boats. The people in the north reported 10 people missing. We could not manage to reestablish contact with the people.

At 20:45 CET we called the Turkish coastguard who confirmed the rescue of 15 people (12 men, 1 woman, 3 children) North of Lesvos off the coast of Çanakkale’s Ayvacık district who had been obviously pushed back.

In the next morning (10 December) from a relative who informs is that there are still people from the group of 9 December hiding in the North of the island (22 were taken to the camp, some were probably pushed back and the other are still hiding).

At 7:45 CET we manage to speak the first time with the people, the connection is bad and there is a lot of wind. They were 6 people (5 men, 1 woman). They stated that they were “in the "jungle" since 2 days”. They are refugees from Eritrea, Yemen and Djibouti and Sudan. Among them a pregnant woman and a person suffering from diabetes.

After receiving their GPS location at 8:17 CET we alert Greek authorities and several NGOs. At 8:30 CET we receive an email from MSF confirming that their team is going to the location to provide medical assistance to the people in need

At 16:32 CET the people get the last time in contact with us and confirm that they are safe.

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