One
compelling image has come to represent all the Greek people who
treated desperate migrants like fellow human beings
It
was an image that came to symbolise desperation and valour: the
desperation of those who will take on the sea – and the men who
ferry human cargo across it – to flee the ills that cannot keep
them in their own countries. And the valour of those on Europe’s
southern shores who rush to save them when tragedy strikes.
Last
week on the island of Rhodes, war, repression, dictatorship in
distant Eritrea were far from the mind of army sergeant Antonis
Deligiorgis. The world inhabited by Wegasi Nebiat, a 24-year-old
Eritrean in the cabin of a yacht sailing towards the isle, was still
far away.
At
8am on Monday there was nothing that indicated the two would meet.
Stationed in Rhodes, the burly soldier accompanied his wife,
Theodora, on the school run. “Then we thought we’d grab a
coffee,” he told the Observer in an exclusive interview recounting
what would soon ensue. “We stopped by a cafe on the seafront.”
Deligiorgis
had his back to the sea when the vessel carrying Nebiat struck the
jagged rocks fishermen on Rhodes grow up learning to avoid. Within
seconds the rickety boat packed with Syrians and Eritreans was
listing. The odyssey that had originated six hours earlier at the
Turkish port of Marmaris – where thousands of Europe-bound migrants
are now said to be amassed – was about to end in the strong
currents off Zefyros Beach.
For
Nebiat, whose journey to Europe began in early March – her parents
paid $10,000 for a voyage that would see her walk, bus and fly her
way to “freedom” – the reef was her first contact with the
continent she had prayed to reach. Soon she was in the water clinging
to a rubber buoy.
“The
boat disintegrated in a matter of minutes,” the father-of-two
recalled. “It was as if it was made of paper. By the time I left
the café at 10 past 10, a lot of people had rushed to the scene. The
coastguard was there, a Super Puma [helicopter] was in the air, the
ambulance brigade had come, fishermen had gathered in their caiques.
Without really giving it a second’s thought, I did what I had to
do. By 10:15 I had taken off my shirt and was in the water.”
Deligiorgis
brought 20 of the 93 migrants to shore singlehandedly. “At first I
wore my shoes but soon had to take them off,” he said, speaking by
telephone from Rhodes. “The water was full of oil from the boat and
was very bitter and the rocks were slippery and very sharp. I cut
myself quite badly on my hands and feet, but all I could think of was
saving those poor people.”
In
the chaos of the rescue, the 34-year-old cannot remember if he saved
three or four men, or three or four children, or five or six women:
“What I do remember was seeing a man who was around 40 die. He was
flailing about, he couldn’t breathe, he was choking, and though I
tried was impossible to reach. Anyone who could was hanging on to the
wreckage.”
Deligiorgis
says he was helped by the survival skills and techniques learned in
the army: “But the waves were so big, so relentless. They kept
coming and coming.” He had been in the water for about 20 minutes
when he saw Nebiat gripping the buoy. “She was having great
problems breathing,” he said. “There were some guys from the
coastguard around me who had jumped in with all their clothes on. I
was having trouble lifting her out of the sea. They helped and then,
instinctively, I put her over my shoulder.”
On
Friday it emerged that he had also rescued a woman who gave birth to
a healthy baby boy in Rhodes general hospital. In a sign of her
gratitude, the Eritrean, who did not want to be identified, told
nurses she would name her son after him. While Deligiorgis’s
heroism has raised the spirits of a nation grappling with its worst
economic crisis in modern times, he is far from alone. All week there
have been stories of acts of kindness, great and small, by islanders
who rushed to help the emigrés. One woman stripped her own child to
swaddle a Syrian baby, hundreds rushed to donate food and clothes.
“They
are souls, like us,” said Babis Manias, a fisherman, breaking down
as he recalled saving a child.
“We
couldn’t believe it at first. We thought it was a tourist boat,
what with all the hotels along the beach. I’ve never seen anything
like it, the terror that can haunt a human’s eyes.”
The
incident has highlighted the extraordinary sacrifice people on the
frontline of Fortress Europe will often make as the humanitarian
disaster unfolding on the continent’s outer reaches becomes ever
more real. Last week close to 2,000 migrants were reported entering
he country with the vast majority coming through its far-flung Aegean
isles. Most were said to be Syrian students and other professionals
able to afford passage to the west.
“As
long as there are crises in their own countries and desperation and
despair, they will look to Europe,” said Giorgos Tsarbopoulos, who
heads the United Nations refugee mission in Athens. “And as long as
there are no legal alternatives they will take these great risks to
get here.”
Like
other passengers, Nebiat, who would spend most of the week in
hospital being treated for suspected pneumonia, has no desire to stay
in Greece. Sweden is her goal. And on Thursday she boarded a ferry
bound for Piraeus, the continuation of a journey that began in the
Eritrean capital of Asmara, took her to Sudan and from there to
Turkey travelling on a fake passport. “I am lucky,” she said as
she was reunited with those who made the journey with her. “Very
lucky to be alive.”
Deligiorgis
falls silent at the mention of heroism. There was nothing brave, he
says, about fulfilling his duty “as a human, as a man”. But
recounting the moment he plucked the Eritrean from the sea, he admits
the memory will linger. “I will never forget her face,” he says.
“Ever.”
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