This morning at 0600 we were woken for a call to a boat off the coast. As usual we went out to give any assistance required. The Frontex boat had got them all on board and were towing their boat. In all there were 19 men on board. All Pakistanis. When we came back into dock the coordinator of Lighthouse Relief asked me if I could offer my assistance to the doctor with a rather ill gentleman. The doctor is a UNHCR supplied doctor working with WAHA (Women And Health Alliance). We determined that he was very dehydrated and had a significant chest infection that meant that we could not hear breath sounds in one of his lungs. Not the best condition to cross the sea in. Once we had him stabilised, and awaiting an ambulance, a nurse arrived and took over from me.
The Greek Coastguard on board the Portuguese Frontex boat (all Frontex teams whether on land or sea have a Greek Coastguard or policeman with them) asked us to tow the boat to the "graveyard of fiberglass boats". The smugglers use two types of boat, an inflatable dinghy or a fiberglass shell of a boat. So far I have only seen inflatable dinghies which often deflate and fill with water from the waves. They are often about 7/8 m long with a small engine and enough fuel to cross. They are then crammed with up to 70 people and their belongings, someone is shown how to operate the engine, they are pointed in the right direction and sent off.
The fibreglass boats are not much better. In fact they may be worse. From what we can see from the ruined ones we think that once the smugglers had used all the seaworthy boats they started to use a mould, put a couple of sheets of fiberglass in it then use that. On a boat that arrived the day before I came, the fibreglass apparently still hadn't dried/set properly. The top of the boat is then attached badly to the hull and the same routine with the engine is gone through and that is their 'vessel to a better life'.
We could see sunlight through the hull of the boat this morning as we were towing it and on one of them on the beach a couple of cracks have been patched with packing tape. I think it must take more courage to get into one of those than one of the dinghies.
Wisely the refugees usually won't get into the boats without a buoyancy aid, however, again from what we've seen, I think these are more dangerous than not having one. While pulling people in the other night I grabbed a strap which is normally a good solid handhold and when I pulled (not that hard) it ripped right off along with a strip of material. The foam inside actually seems to soak up water which would make it a sinking device rather than a flotation device. Some are given the inflated inner tubes of tyres and we have seen children in swimming pool arm bands! For some reason the refugees seem to take them off and throw them and the inner tubes overboard when they get near to the coast, just at the time that they will probably need them the most. I don't know if the smugglers tell them to do that so that they seem more vulnerable and are more likely to be helped or maybe they are very bulky and they know they'll need to move soon. No idea why they do this but it's dangerous.
Even in the boats it's still not safe; in the winter when lots of water would get into the boats through wave action there were reports of rescuers emptying the boats to find that people had drowned in the water in the bottom of them.
Boats are only one option. There is a Syrian volunteering at Lighthouse Relief who was a lifeguard back home. He swam across from Turkey. That is 4.9Nmi (9km/5.6M) at its absolute shortest distance. We swim about 1km for fitness every day in the same sea and I can tell you I would NOT want to swim 9km across a border and shipping lane. Desperation can lead to great feats.
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