03/01/2024: 30 people near Lesvos, pushed back to Turkey

04.01.2024 / 15:09 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 3rd of January 2024
Case name: 2024_01_03-EASTERN MED - 003
Situation: 30 people near Lesvos, pushed back to Turkey
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Med

Summary of the Case:

In the morning of the 3rd of January 2024, the Alarm Phone was alerted by a relative to a boat with 30 people, including 12 children, in distress near Lesvos. The position the relative forwarded to us was in Turkish SAR zone. We were not able to reach the people directly but the relative told us that the people reported that they had been pushed back from Greece.
At 07:59 CET we informed the Turkish and the Hellenic coast guards, as well as other organisations about the group.
At 08:07 CET we called MRCC Ankara, who stated that they had already been informed about this boat by the Hellenic Coast Guard and had sent out an asset. The found a rubber boat but the operation was still ongoing.
At 11:22 CET we called MRCC Ankara again, who confirmed that they picked up 45 people northeast of Lesvos. The Turkish coast guard also confirmed that the phone number from our case matches one of numbers from that boat.
We were not able to reach the people later to learn more about the circumstances of the pushback.

Last update: 18:58 Apr 21, 2024

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