City worker who gave up top job to save refugees warns Turkey deal won’t work
WHEN NICHOLAS Millet went to volunteer in “The Jungle”, Calais’ notorious refugee camp, he only planned to help out for a weekend.
But the 25-year-old management consultant was so struck by the terrible conditions and horror stories of refugees fleeing war and persecution that he left his well-paid job as a management consultant in the City of London and travelled to Greece, where he is helping co-ordinate efforts to rescue migrants crossing the Aegean Sea.
Mr Millet said: “I was seeing people make these dangerous and perilous journeys on the news, and I just felt I had to be on the right side of history.
“I couldn’t help looking at the refugees in Calais and think this was my family 70 years ago when we were fleeing the Nazis. With my managerial experience, I knew I had a strong skill set that could help.”
Mr Millet organised a leave of absence from his company for a year and, at the beginning of January, arrived on the Greek island of Chios, having made contact with a local woman who runs the Chios Eastern Shore Rescue Team.
There, armed with a satellite phone, he co-ordinates three rescue teams who patrol the coastal waters ensuring refugees fleeing from Syria, Afghanistan and north Africa make it safely to land.
He said: “There was no official structure here. Multiple organisations are on the ground doing different things, and someone needed t o b e o n s h o r e t o communicate between them.
“I f I wasn’t here doing it I don’t know who would be, there is no one else to do it. More people would certainly be drowning. Just the other day two children died. There is no safe passage for anyone — they are prey to people smugglers who provide boats that are woefully inadequate. But they are all desperate to make the journey — they wouldn’t do it if they weren’t.” He added: “Chios is the arrival point for the highest number of refugees after Lesbos. Up to 30 boats arrive here each night packed with 50 to 80 people at a time. Babies, women, children, the disabled and t he s i c k, you name it they are all crammed onto these boats. It is impossible to see them coming off the boats s o a k i n g wet and not feel c o m - pelled to help them.
“Wetrytoco-ordinatedifferentrescue responses to ensure that those coming over are received safely and also receive medical attention if they need it, which they often do.”
Mr Millet, from Stanmore, northwest London, said his Jewish ancestry had driven him to volunteer.
“Each boat reminds me of my heritage, these people were once Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. My grandfather fled Germany, and I had family murdered in Auschwitz.
“Giving up my job was a no-brainer. There is a need for what I’m doing here and I’ll continue doing it for as long as I’m needed.”
New plans outlined this week by Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkey’s prime minister, proposed to resettle one Syrian refugee in Europe for every Syrian returned to Turkey from the Greek islands.
But Mr Millet criticised the proposal as “yet another bad policy”. He said: “A lot of the refugees already have family in Europe and they want to come here.
“The EU needs to understand that people are going to make the journey regardless and we need to do more to provide a safe passage. The situation as it stands forces people to cross illegally and it has created a market for smugglers.”