They looked like shadows at first drifting out of the fog. Men, women and children taking their chances in unseaworthy, overloaded boats and dinghies in a desperate bid to reach Europe. For those reaching the shore – cold, wet exhausted and vulnerable – the relief was evident. For others, the end was to be tragic as boats making the dangerous crossing capsized, the desperate cries of ‘help’ guiding the coastguard to rescue those they could, but for others, help would come too late, if at all.
Welcome to the gates of 21st century Europe.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, 1,015,078 men, women and children, mostly from war-torn Syria, but also from other Asian and African countries, made the sea crossing into Europe during 2015.
In January this year alone, a further 74,052 arrived by sea with a further 403 dead or missing. The numbers arriving by sea are around 10 times what they were this time last year, and the numbers fleeing war, terror and persecution show no signs of abating.
The death of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi focussed attention on refugees making the dangerous crossing from Turkey to the Greek holiday island of Kos last summer.
And it’s to here that four members of recently formed non-political organisation Refuge Fife are about to venture to help the Greeks who are assisting refugees making the perilous journey into Europe by sea.
Chris Mitchell, Sandie Steele, Grant Blair and Lorna Ross will leave on Saturday February 20, and will work with Kos Solidarity and other local relief organisations, on Kos and possibly neighbouring islands for up to four weeks.
For grandfather-of-two Chris, of Kinghorn, a former Fife Council officer made redundant in 2011, it’s an opportunity to put to use his 25 years of experience as an RNLI and Coastguard volunteer in Kinghorn. And his reasons for wanting to help in Kos are similar to why he volunteered for the lifeboat service all those years ago to save lives.
“I think I saw a photo of a mum trying to feed or change her baby at the side of a road in the Balkans when I decided I wanted to help,” he told The Courier.
“I thought of my own kids and grandchildren and thought about what’s right and wrong. There’s probably more people been lost in the seas between Greece and Turkey over the last year than over the whole of the 25 years I have been involved with the RNLI at Kinghorn. The reasons for getting involved are much the same, but it’s the scale of what’s happening that’s completely overwhelming.”
Grant Blair, 63, a retired teacher and member of Refuge Fife, spent a week in Kos helping refugees. He was so moved he is going back. An RNLI sea safety officer and experienced sailor, he was horrified to see what the refugees were risking their lives in.
The four Fife volunteers are appealing for money to use on the refugee relief effort.
Those on the ground will help set priorities. The money will pay for goods such as shoes, gloves, jackets and baby care for the refugees; search and first aid equipment for the local relief and rescue workers to use in saving lives; and the means of getting help and shelter to where it is most needed. It will not fund the volunteers as they are meeting their costs themselves.
Chris added: “I know how dangerous the sea can be. In Fife it’s usually leisure users who are unlucky that get into difficulty. The difference for those making the crossing into the Greek islands is they are not doing it for fun. No one would put their children, themselves, their in-laws, into a rubber dinghy on a cold wet night and head into the darkness if they did not think that doing that was safer than what they were leaving behind. They feel they have no choice but to make this incredibly dangerous journey.”
Chris is delighted with donations they have received so far. Welcoming £400 from Cupar Blues & Beyond Club this week, he said: “In a bleak and worsening context, people’s basic humanity reveals a chink of light.”
But Refuge Fife spokesman Bill Mair said there were growing concerns that volunteers like the Fife four could yet be criminalised. The Council of the European Union is preparing plans to equate the concept of migrant “smuggling” with migrant “trafficking” and potentially criminalise or marginalise NGOs, local people and volunteers who for months have been welcoming and helping refugees and migrants arriving in the EU.
Mr Mair added: “We also deplore the British government limiting the number of refugees housed in Britain to 20,000 over five years. Fife is only taking 140 refugees over five years. Yet Lebanon, smaller than Scotland’s Central Lowlands, has two million. That’s horrific. We firmly believe we could and should be taking so many more.”
To donate to the Refuge Fife volunteers, go to
https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/chris-mitchell-1
malexander@thecourier.co.uk