05/02/2024: 40 people in distress near Lesvos after being attacked by the Hellenic Coast Guard

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05.02.2024 / 11:34 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 5th of February 2024

Case name: 2024_02_05-EASTERN MED - 57 

Situation: 40 people in distress near Lesvos after being attacked by the Hellenic Coast Guard who stole their engine. They were later found by Turkish Coast Guard

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded 

Place of Incident: Eastern Med

Summary of the Case:
In the early afternoon of the 5th of February, Alarm Phone was contacted by a worried relative, alerting us to a group of 40 people in distress at sea somewhere between Turkey and Greece. The caller related that the people told them that they had been attacked by the Hellenic Coast Guard, who stole their engine. Before they got a GPS position the call broke and the relative could not reach the group again. We tried to establish direct contact to the boat but could not.
We alerted the authorities at 12:39 CET. The Turkish Coast Guard had received information from the Hellenic Coast Guard about several boats, and had already sent patrol boats.
At 12:44 CET we received an email from the Turkish Coast Guard, confirming that they had found the group between Babakale and Lesvos.
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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