21/01: Boat with 21 people in distress

22.01.2022 / 11:52 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st of January 2022

Case name: 20220121-AEG854
Situation: Boat with 21 people in distress in Turkish waters, after having been pushed back. When we called the Turkish Coast Guard, the Hellenic Coast Guard had already informed them. Everyone was brought to Muğla.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Med

Summary of the Case:
On the 21st of January a relative informed Alarm Phone about 21 people in distress on a boat in Turkish waters, on their way to Rhodos Island, and that they had been pushed back by Hellenic Coast Guard before. We couldn't establish contact to the people on board. At 05:09 CET we alerted the Turkish Coast Guard about the situation. They told us the Hellenic Coast Guard already had alerted them to this case and they had already commenced a rescue operation.
"21 irregular migrants were rescued from a rubber boat pushed back into Turkish Territorial Waters by the Greek elements Coast Guard Boat" was later stated in the article below, posted by the Turkish Coast Guard.
At 07:10 CET the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) Ankara informed us that everybody was safe and brought to Muğla, Turkey.

Last update: 19:16 May 16, 2022

Sources

https://www.sg.gov.tr/mugla-aciklarinda-21-duzensiz-gocmen-kurtarilmistir-21-01-2022-

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