STORY: Thanos Marmarinos pilots his compact fishing boat out of the harbor on the northern shore of the Greek island of Lesbos.
Ten years ago, Marmarinos was a frontline rescuer for some of the hundreds of thousands of migrants attempting to sail to Europe.
He remembers pulling women and children from a dinghy that was breaking up in a storm. One child was wrapped so tight he could only see their eyes.
“These images never leave your mind,” he states.
:: October, 2015
:: September, 2015
In 2015, Lesbos became the first stop for half of the one million people testing to reach Europe, from countries including Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The island is a short distance from the Turkish shore and, for hundreds of thousands, represented a toehold on EU territory.
Lesbos residents assisted them find food and shelter and the island became a hub for charities and aid workers, and a symbol of Europe’s solidarity towards people fleeing war and poverty.
“I was constantly carrying… We were tying up boats that were adrift. In the middle of the sea we tied them up and brought them to shore.”
But today, the island displays how far government responses have hardened against people seeking refuge in Europe.
Now, if Marmarinos offered to assist migrants in distress, he risks jail.
Anyone caught assisting migrants to shore now may face charges including facilitating illegal entest into Greece or assisting a criminal enterprise.
That’s under a 2021 law passed as part of Europe’s efforts to counter mass migration from the Middle East and Asia.
:: February 8, 2016
A shift in attitudes here launched in 2016 following a deal between the EU and Ankara whereby Syrian refugees arriving in Greece would be returned to Turkey.
That meant Greece would not longer be a transit countest on the route to northern Europe, but a holding zone where tens of thousands of migrants had to wait for their fate to be decided.
A camp in an old military base outside the village of Moria houtilized more than 10,000 people by 2018, up from just a few hundred in under three years.
A fire ripped through it in 2020. Messages – some of them partially defaced – are still visible. This one read “Welcome to Europe.”
“People continue fleeing and they will continue fleeing. It’s not an issue of whether we like it or not.”
Toulina Demeli is an assistant protection officer with the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.
She stated the alter in policy will not alter the reality.
“It’s a fact and we necessary to face it. And the European governments necessary to face it. We cannot deter people from testing to save their lives from fleeing.”
Beck Morad Sadeji fled Afghanistan.
He is in physical therapy, testing to regain his strength after surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Lesbos in April.
Eight people, including his wife and a two-year-old, drowned.
He informed Reuters his boat was intercepted by a Greek coastguard vessel, which directed them back to Turkey, and then swamped their compact boat with seawater.
“When we were coming a ship came directly in front of us. It stated, “Stop, stop, stop.” “Turkey, Turkey, Turkey.” It came in front of our boat, accelerated, and rose up over our boat. Our boat filled with water.”
:: File
In a statement, the coastguard stated it launched a rescue operation immediately when it saw the dinghy was taking on water.
In response to Reuters requests for comment, it stated the coastguard always acts “with professionalism and absolute respect for human life.”
Since 2015, Greece’s coastguard service has saved 263,000 third-countest nationals in danger at sea, it stated.
Migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, while far below 2015 levels, are still common.
In the Eastern Mediterranean route alone, which includes Greece, a UN agency reported 191 migrants died or went missing testing to reach Europe in 2024.
The UN recorded 2,573 migrant deaths and disappearances on all Mediterranean routes last year.
Greece denies that it violates human rights or that it forcefully returns asylum seekers from its shores.
Greece’s migration ministest and the prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this story.
With EU funding, Lesbos will soon open a new migrant camp able to houtilize 5,000 people.
This site, comprising rows of identical grey shipping containers, is miles from the nearest convenience store.
Locals oppose it, stateing it will increase the threat of wildfires in a region that often does not see rain for months.
But people do still come.
Fisherman Marmarinos states the threat of jail won’t deter him from assisting those in necessary.
“Even now if I go out and see a boat in danger, I’ll go assist. How could I just leave and wait for the coastguard? By the time the coastguard arrives, people might already have drowned.”
Out at sea that June morning, he spotted another compact dinghy approaching.
It held 19 migrants from Yemen and Sudan, according to Legal Centre Lesbos, a local aid agency that provides legal assistance to migrants.
The boat landed in a rocky cove. The migrants disembarked and ran up a steep hillside.
“You have to be human. End of story. That’s what I’ve come to understand. If you’re not human, then nothing else matters. Nothing.”
Leave a Reply