31/03: Travellers stranded on Lesvos fear push-back , but were finally brought to quarantine camp Megala Therma

01.04.2021 / 23:28 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 31st of March 2021

Case name: 2021_03_31-AEG779

Situation: Alarm Phone was contacted by a group of people who were being held in a port police bus on Lesvos and were scared that they would be pushed back. In the end they were brought to a camp.

Status of WTM Investigation: concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: In the morning of 31st of March 2021 Alarm Phone was called by a group of travellers who were held in a port police bus on Lesvos. The family members were wet and cold and some of them suffered from medical problems. We informed UNHCR who answered us via email that the people would be transferred to camp Megala Therma.

We stayed in contact with the people. As an injured pregnant women and her family was picked up from the bus the travellers got more scared. We published a tweet. Soon after the travellers gave the all-clear and were brought to the camp.

Tweet chronology

10.20h CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1377174013076668422

11.07h CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1377185162610401282

Last update: 16:13 Aug 20, 2021

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