Lesvos, 12.12.15

“Today we started at 8:15. After only a few minutes we spotted a heavily overcrowded boat glowing orange from all the life vests aboard. The ten meter long boat carried 60 people including children, women and elderly.

The boat was heading towards a steep coast. We then rerouted it to the port of Molyvos where safe disembarkment is possible.

Half a mile before reaching land their motor ran out of fuel so that we had to tow them to the harbour. Land teams were already informed and waited on land to provide help.

The boat had been on the water for about 4 hours.

We are witnessing that boats are now taking longer and more dangerous routes to Europe, as the Turkish coast is now intensely surveilled.”

The picture shows the SW boat patrol pattern during which the operation unfolded.