Migrant babies who survived sea tragedy
THEIR faces ashen with cold, refugee children are treated by volunteers after being plucked from the sea off a Mediterranean holiday island.
As the medics work, more youngsters arrive, cradled in the arms of rescuers.
But these survivors are the lucky ones – at least 11 children, many under five, and five adults drowned off the coast of Lesbos in a series of sinkings.
The children in these pictures were among more than 360 refugees pulled from the water on Wednesday.
The images bring the humanitarian tragedy on the Greek island into sharp relief.
A search continued yesterday for at least 34 who were still missing, including a baby.
In the worst incident, a wooden boat crammed with almost 300 refugees sank two
‘One boy died in their arms’
miles off Lesbos. The vessel was among several swamped by high winds as they tried to make the crossing from Turkey, the latest tragedy since the huge influx began earlier this year.
Television pictures showed doctors and locals trying to resuscitate children on the beach and quayside.
Volunteers used CPR on some in a desperate battle to save them,
Other children were held upside down to empty their lungs of water and stop them choking.
Many of the youngsters were wrapped in insulated blankets to warm their bodies and stop them going into shock after their ordeal in the chilly sea.
Yesterday, volunteers told of the operation to treat children as they were brought ashore.
British volunteer Tracey Myers, who is based in the port town of Molyvos, said they were warned of a ‘hideous medical need’ as bad weather caused a constant stream of sinkings off Lesbos on Wednesday.
She said that the island had run out of blankets and that children, many still damp and barefoot after being rescued from sinking boats, were having to sleep on tattered bits of cardboard.
‘These are old fishing boats that are being crammed with 200 to 300 people and when they get into trouble they sink fast,’ she told the Daily Mail.
‘The coastguard was overwhelmed, they just couldn’t cope with the numbers.
‘They phoned us and told us that many people were in a terrible state and were not going to make it because they had been in the sea too long.
‘The first time the coastguard came in they had ten kids that were unconscious and had been pulled out of the water. We made ten little stretchers on the harbour side near to the holiday resort.
‘Everyone was performing CPR. It was the most terrible and bizarre thing I’ve ever seen. Children were being held upside down and their backs slapped to try and get the water out of their lungs. Some of the children were in real trouble, I’ve no idea if those we helped made it.
‘As soon as we had moved those ten, another ten would be brought in and the same thing would happen all over again.’
Miss Myers, who works for charity Refugees Start, said those rescued on Wednesday were mainly from war-torn Syria, and about a third were aged under five.
At least 25 were suffering serious shock, hypothermia and other injuries, she said.
‘Two of our volunteers tried to resuscitate a child that died in the harbour and they kept doing CPR because the dad was distraught and they just wanted to show the dad that they had done their absolute best. One of the volunteers did CPR on this kid for 25 minutes, but the kid was gone.
‘Another of our volunteers came across a three or four-year-old boy and they tried to electroshock him and bring him back to life and
‘Extra pressure and extra horror’
resuscitate him, but he passed in his arms.
‘There were some really, really traumatised people. They were freezing, wandering around because they had lost relatives in the water. Some sat in stunned silence, others were wailing because they knew their family had gone. One woman had lost her husband and child.’
The exact circumstances of the latest sinking were unclear, but reports suggested people-smugglers had forced some passengers aboard at gunpoint. The boat is believed to have sunk when its upper deck, crammed with people, collapsed on to the lower deck.
Patrol vessels, fishing boats and even locals on jet-skis joined the search into the night for survivors.
More than 3,200 refugees, many of them children, are thought to have died during similar crossings this year, the International Organization for Migration said.
They include Aylan Kurdi, three, and his brother, Galip, five, from Syria. Images of the body of Aylan, dressed in a red T-shirt and shorts, face down on a Turkish beach shocked the world and brought promises of action from world leaders. But the influx of refugees has become Europe’s biggest humanitarian crisis in decades.
Miss Myers said nothing had changed since Aylan died in September, except the crossing has become even more dangerous because more people are trying to reach Europe before winter. In June, up to 250 migrants a day landed on Lesbos, she said. But on Tuesday alone more than 6,500 arrived.
‘There is extra pressure and extra horror,’ she added.
More than 500,000 migrants have entered Greece through its outlying islands since January. Many handed over thousands of pounds to people-smugglers to make the perilous trip. Lesbos, six miles from Turkey, has been a primary gateway.
Earlier this week an emergency meeting of EU leaders turned acrimonious when each accused the other of shirking responsibility.
They agreed to build reception centres for 100,000 more people – half of them in Greece – to help the migrants survive winter.
The latest tragedy off Lesbos came as Royal Navy vessels Enterprise and Richmond rescued almost 550 refugees off Libya.