Can I drop crew of in Turkey without checking in ?

affinite

affinite

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Next summer we will be sailing in the Dodecanese with crew who then want to spend a week or so in Turkey.
Does anyone know if it would be allowed for me to

sail from Greece (Kos) to Turkey (Bodrum), tie up at the customs quay so that departing crew can legitimately checkin to the country/get their passports checked/ buy visas etc
then me sail the boat straight back to Greece without checking me and the boat into Turkey ?
Seems to me that this is exactly what the Kos-Bodrum ferries do all day long but I dont know if they have some sort of special arrangement.

I dont want the hassle or expense of checking me and the boat into Turkey if I can avoid it so if this cant be done, I'll just put them on the ferry in Kos

Thanks
Steve

Sorry spelling in title Should read "Can I drop crew off in Turkey without checking in? "
 
Yes you can. (I think) We went into Turkey just to fill up with diesel. I asked "do we have to check in" and the answer was no we stepped ashore did some shopping about two hours. The cast off and on route to CRETE.

So hope it works the same for you.

Good Luck

Peter
 
NO you can not, well not legally and your crew will have trouble leaving the cpountry wihtout the necessary stamps/visas in their passports.

Think about what you have asked: A foriegn yacht arriving in the UK droping off illegal immigrants(9in this case your crew) and leaving again. That is what you are asking to do. Checking in and out of Turkey is not a big deal.

Why do you think immigration and customs in Turkey is any less important than immigration and customs in the UK?
 
I'm not convinced that crew being dropped off are "illegal immigrants". They will check themselves in after all, and if skipper doesn't go ashore why should he need to check himself plus boat in, and immediately out again? Sure it will probably confuse the heck out of the immigration people but a letter from the Turkish Embassy should cover that - if it is legal - which really does need to be checked from an official source. Jobsworth officials may well be a problem even if it is found to be legal.

You can sail in another country's national waters without checking in, what you can't do is land, but where the boundary lies who knows. Harbour limits? Setting foot on shore? tying up? Anchoring in a bay? You must be able to anchor offshore without checking in.. 't would be interesting to know where the line is drawn.

Anyone got an old Almanac with the legal section in it? It'll probably be in there.
 
Last edited:
MASH said:
I'm not convinced that crew being dropped off are "illegal immigrants". They will check themselves in after all, and if skipper doesn't go ashore why should he need to check himself plus boat in, and immediately out again? Sure it will probably confuse the heck out of the immigration people but a letter from the Turkish Embassy should cover that - if it is legal - which really does need to be checked from an official source. Jobsworth officials may well be a problem even if it is found to be legal.

You can sail in another country's national waters without checking in, what you can't do is land, but where the boundary lies who knows. Harbour limits? Setting foot on shore? tying up? Anchoring in a bay? You must be able to anchor offshore without checking in.. 't would be interesting to know where the line is drawn.

Anyone got an old Almanac with the legal section in it? It'll probably be in there.
Click to expand...

Total **** I'm afraid, I hope you'd enjoy your long stay stay in a Turkish jail; if you did this you deserve it - ignorance is no excuse! Doing what you have suggested is illegal everywhere.Maybe you'd like a ship to drop off a bunch of Romanians somewhere on the Thames Estuary, then just bugger off "as they can check themselves in"? Sorry, but if you really believe what you have written, you need to wake up to reality - or you could find yourself in deep trouble...

You are allowed free passage to navigate through a countries waters but, that does not mean dropping the hook for a kip, going ashore for bread, etc, etc; it means travelling through its territorial waters by the shortest route without stopping unless for an emergency or for a navigational problem. Anything else and you must check in, clear immigration and customs, especially if you are dropping crew off.
 
Some people just don't read the text/thread he said he was going to drop them off at the customs/immigration quay and check them in legally first this is OK.
 
rivonia said:
Yes you can. (I think) We went into Turkey just to fill up with diesel. I asked "do we have to check in" and the answer was no we stepped ashore did some shopping about two hours. The cast off and on route to CRETE.

So hope it works the same for you.

Good Luck

Peter
Click to expand...

Hello, Peter, and hi to Claire:

I am curious as to which official gave you the answer that apparently you wanted to hear...and more importantly, did you disclose to the Greek officials in Crete that you had left Greek waters for Turkey without checking out...and that you had been in and out of Turkey without checking in? If not, what would you have said if asked? What do you think the Greeks would have done?

I firmly believe that if we ask a question enough times to many people, we will eventually get the answer we want.

There are people that search this forum until they find the answer they want to hear. Unfortunately, not all of the answers here are correct...many are not.

In 2011 I had the pleasure to meet a really nice Greek Official. I asked him several questions about Greece and Turkey, and why certain things were the way they are. It was an interesting and informative conversation. Basically, Greece blames Turkey for the majority of Greece's problematic illegal immigrants. He said that unfortunately, Turkey does not have secure borders with countries like Syria, Iran, and Iraq. I saw this firsthand about 2 weeks ago when we were on a tour just a few kilometers inside the Turkey/Syria border...thousands of Arabic speaking people claiming to be Syrian refugees. Erdogan plans to give all of these people Turkish passports and allow them to vote (I guess he figures that he needs more votes).

The Greek Official also told me about his list of potential violators that he had gleaned from an Internet boating forum (not ybw, I hope). He was hoping that one day he would be checking one of those boats into Greece. I recognized one of the boat names, but did not know the crew/owner.

Reader, be warned.

Bill
BeBe
 
BeBe said:
Hello, Peter, and hi to Claire:

I am curious as to which official gave you the answer that apparently you wanted to hear...and more importantly, did you disclose to the Greek officials in Crete that you had left Greek waters for Turkey without checking out...and that you had been in and out of Turkey without checking in? If not, what would you have said if asked? What do you think the Greeks would have done?

I firmly believe that if we ask a question enough times to many people, we will eventually get the answer we want.

There are people that search this forum until they find the answer they want to hear. Unfortunately, not all of the answers here are correct...many are not.

In 2011 I had the pleasure to meet a really nice Greek Official. I asked him several questions about Greece and Turkey, and why certain things were the way they are. It was an interesting and informative conversation. Basically, Greece blames Turkey for the majority of Greece's problematic illegal immigrants. He said that unfortunately, Turkey does not have secure borders with countries like Syria, Iran, and Iraq. I saw this firsthand about 2 weeks ago when we were on a tour just a few kilometers inside the Turkey/Syria border...thousands of Arabic speaking people claiming to be Syrian refugees. Erdogan plans to give all of these people Turkish passports and allow them to vote (I guess he figures that he needs more votes).

The Greek Official also told me about his list of potential violators that he had gleaned from an Internet boating forum (not ybw, I hope). He was hoping that one day he would be checking one of those boats into Greece. I recognized one of the boat names, but did not know the crew/owner.

Reader, be warned.

Bill
BeBe
Click to expand...

Hello Bill,

Hope that your still in good health.

We left KGM and made our way to Finike where we filled up with diesel. After that we went to Greece and had our DEPKA stamped. All done without a hitch.

Peter
 
Ariadne, thank you for your ill-considered and intemperate outburst. Perhaps you might have had the courtesy to read what was written first? Most of that post was in the form of questions or surmise. Oh well.

You can land an aeroplane (private) and refuel in a foreign country and clear off again without checking in. You can drop passengers off too - why shold that not be done in a port of entry too?
 
I think some people on this forum should go to Specsavers and then read my question again.
I wasnt planning to drop off a boat load of illegal imigrants on a deserted Turkish beach in the dead of night.
 
MASH said:
Ariadne, thank you for your ill-considered and intemperate outburst. Perhaps you might have had the courtesy to read what was written first? Most of that post was in the form of questions or surmise. Oh well.

You can land an aeroplane (private) and refuel in a foreign country and clear off again without checking in. You can drop passengers off too - why shold that not be done in a port of entry too?
Click to expand...

Ariadne was a little forceful in the response, but Ariande is correct and you are wrong (I do not know about airplanes). You are wrong about vessels, except if the vessel declares an emergency. In the case of an emergency some countries require that the entire vessel be bonded and the length of emergency stay is usually limited to 24 hours. I am aware of vessels allowed into a country for an emergency without formal clearance or bond, but of the three circumstances that I am aware of (2 for emergency refuelling and 1 for emergency repairs), each country required the vessel to stay in one spot and the crew could not leave the boat. One of the three had an armed official onboard until the boat left the harbour. In all of the emergency cases it was at the will of the officials. The worst thing to do in a situation like this is to attempt to bully your way into a country...you will most certainly fail.

One more thing that captains of vessels should know about departing crew members: If the crew is of a different nationality than the country in which they are departing, It is the captain's responsibility that the departing crew members have Visas (in fact, or by law) in that country and that departing crew have departure transportation tickets to leave that country. I am aware of a vessel and crew that cleared into a country to let off crew who had a 30-day Visa by law, but the crew had no transportation ticket out of the country. The vessel was impounded until the crew member produced a ticket. The captain paid about 1,000 USD for the ticket because the crew member did not have the money.

Clearance into foreign countries and respect of their immigration laws should be taken very seriously. If you do not take them seriously and promote the, "I got away with it" in public forums, I will certainly slam you much harder than Ariadne.

Bill
 
affinite said:
I think some people on this forum should go to Specsavers and then read my question again.
I wasnt planning to drop off a boat load of illegal imigrants on a deserted Turkish beach in the dead of night.
Click to expand...

I believe that your question was answered. Remember some country's laws do not require or include knowledge or "intent." The law is the law. Generally speaking a small percentage of violators get prosecuted. Real "justice" occurs when violators who purposefully attempted to ignore the law, or to "go around the law" are prosecuted and/or fined.

I have visited 50 countries by vessel, experiencing 50 sets of officials, and 50 different laws. I have seen people accidentally violate customs and immigration laws and get caught, and I have seen people intentionally violate them. When caught, the squealing from the intentional violators always amuses me.

Bill
 
I dare say you, or anyone, might get away with it if you were to visit a harbour, not draw attention to yourself, and creep away. We have, I am afraid to say. But it depends on the country: you would be hard pressed to get any interest from the authorities in Spain or Italy, for example. But Turkey takes these things seriously.

But if you draw attention to yourself by visiting a port of entry and presenting yourself (or your visiting crew) to the authorities, you can expect to have to do the full monte: visas, transit logs, and whatever.

So put them on the ferry.
 
Assuming you can get a letter from the Turkish Consulate in London it may count for nothing with local passport control who have a reputation for differing interpretations of the law. Getting a visa isn't a problem if you have access to a printer as you can apply on line its getting a stamp on the visa and the officials only tend to be around and readily available when the ferries come in .
Since the demise of the need for "visa runs" from Turkey ferry prices have tumbled - currently its only around 20 Euros one way so why take the chance.
 
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