Irish charity on a Mediterranean mission to save refugees
AN Irish charity is currently the only group running a humanitarian rescue boat around the Greek island of Lesbos, where refugees fleeing war first land on their way to northern Europe.
Refugee Rescue mans a former RNLI boat – re-christened ‘Mo Chara’ – with an international crew.
Turkish and EU border patrol boats monitor the seas following a deal between the EU and Turkey to keep refugees out, but the humanitarian side of rescue still falls on the shoulders of volunteers.
In 2016, an average of 14 people a day drowned while crossing to Europe from Turkey and neighbouring areas, with almost 5,000 deaths counted for the year by the International Organisation for Migration.
Refugee Rescue crew member Beren De Hora, an engineer and ex-RNLI crewman from Cork, was drawn to Lesbos by Refugee Rescue’s work.
Horrified at the drownings, he says EU policies are making fortunes for the people traffickers: ‘For me it is clear that EU policy is driving these people into the hands of smugglers, and smugglers are becoming multi-millionaires.’
This time last year passage from Turkey to Lesbos – which in places are only 10km apart – cost €1,200 per person. But now people report paying €2,000 a head, even for babies.
The ‘Mo Chara’ works with the coastguard, operating mainly at night. In many cases smugglers decline to travel in their own rickety boats, instead forcing refugees from land-locked countries who may never have seen the sea before to steer into the darkness. He said: ‘The smugglers change where they drop people off all the time, sometimes putting people straight into the water. One day in October they dropped a group
of about 13 off at the cliffs into the water; they had to be rescued from the sea as there is no road access. They were an Afghan family: granny, mum and dad, teenage sons and babies. The granny had hypothermia and she’d swallowed so much sea water. That had a huge impact on me, the father was very distressed. You realise they would not be doing this with all those people unless they had to. It’s a horrendous journey.’
Belfast woman Jude Bennett is an art curator turned humanitarian who set up Refugee Rescue with singer Joby Fox. She said: ‘We have about 30 volunteers now, they come for shifts of two to three weeks. They’re all trained in rescue, mainly with the RNLI. They are exceptional people.’