22/12: A group stranded on Rhodos

23.12.2020 / 12:06 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd of December 2020
Case name: 2020_12_22-AEG738
Situation: A group stranded on Rhodos.
Status of WTM Investigation: Ongoing
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:
On 22nd December we were contacted by a worried relative of somebody in a group of travelers who had been stranded on Rhodes. We were given a phone number, but we were never able to make contact with the group. We emailed the Hellenic coastguard, Frontex, NATO, the Greek ombudsman and various NGOs to alert them to this group. We phoned JRCC Piraeus who initially told us that they had already searched the area, but would not take further information. When we phoned them again an hour or so later, they told us that it was not their responsibility as the group was stranded on land. They would not give us a phone number of a relevant authority on Rhodes. We were unable to reach the Rhodes tourist police or the Rhodes Port authority. The airport police on Rhodes refused to speak to us. Without more concrete information we felt that there was little more that could be done.

Later, we got in touch with the travellers who were back in Turkey. We received the following testimony about the violent pushback they had endured: "When we arrived on the island we started walking. When we entered a forest the soldiers came. They put us in a small van and took us to the harbour. We arrived on the island around 10:00am in the morning and we stayed until 20:00pm in the night. We were around 20 people in total. On the harbour there were soldiers dressed in grey colour with a white number on the back and a covered face, they searched us and took all our belongings, our passports, identity cards, money and phones. They were violent with the children and touched the women. At night they transferred us to a ship, they were beating the women and children. The ship we entered had a European Union flag, it is a blue flag with stars. And this ship looked like an army ship. It took around 1-1,5 hours until they put us on a boat. We started shouting that they put us there at night and that it is dark but they did not listen to us. When they threw us in the boat, they put a 7 month old infant in a plastic bag and threw it to the people already in the boat. We had one phone left and we called the Turkish Coast Guard and they came to rescue us. When we arrived to the Turkish border land we stayed five days in the jail. Now we do not have any paper."
Last update: 12:26 Mar 30, 2021
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