By Rachael Brown and Parthena Stavropoulos.
An Australian lifesaver who volunteered to help asylum seekers crossing the Aegean Sea to reach the Greek island of Lesbos says he had to stand by and watch 31 people drown because they were in international waters.
The 10-kilometre passage from Turkey to Lesbos can be extremely perilous, but it is the landing place of thousands of Syrians seeking refuge in Europe.
St Kilda Surf Lifesaving Club’s captain Simon Lewis went to Greece as part of a joint venture between the Greek Lifeguards and the International Surf Lifesaving Association.
He said his team alone helped save 517 people in 10 days, and said the emotion in the eyes of the people he helped was “electric”.
Another incident that stood out for him was the look of relief on a young man’s face when he and his team raced towards his boat.
“He got stuck with being the driver, and had never driven a boat before, let alone been on water,” Mr Lewis said.
“I remember coming around the boat, and I locked eyes on him, and he locked eyes on me, and all the colour came back on his face, the look of relief.”
But Mr Lewis said he also witnessed some horrors that would remain with him forever.
He said he had to stand by helpless as 31 asylum seekers drowned on the Turkish side of the sea, because his team was not allowed to intervene.
“That’s the nature of lifesaving, we put ourselves in that situation to help prevent people from drowning and yet because it’s across the way in international water you’re restricted and can’t actually do anything about it,” Mr Lewis said.
Volunteers are not allowed to assist unless boats are sinking because helping people over international borders could see them charged with people smuggling.
Mr Lewis said keeping his distance in those circumstances was the hardest part.
He said one case that stuck in his mind was of a mother trying to throw her child five metres to what she considered safety.
“We realised what she was about to do, you know, throw us the baby and so we had to pull away from her and put some distance between us. Just seeing her face, that heartbreak,” he said.
He said there were about 2,000 refugees who travelled to the area in the time he was there.
“These boats are the dodgiest,” he said.
“[They are] kind of built like an inflatable boat, with a fake Chinese engine, they all have fake life jackets on and its on the lowest budget thing that you wouldn’t even put your family in.
“These people make the journey because they think it’s better than being on land, and that says everything to you [about] their situation, to try to get to freedom, because it’s a better option than anywhere else.”
As well as lending a hand, Mr Lewis ran a crowd-funding campaign that’s raised more than $22,000, for a new rescue jet ski for the Greek lifeguards.
Australia’s attitude to refugees ‘shameful’.
International human rights lawyer Julian Burnside said Mr Lewis’ story was especially important on the eve of Australia Day.
He said Australia’s attitude to boat people in the last few years had been a matter of international shame.
“Because on Australia Day I think people should ask who are we? What are we as a country?” Mr Burnside said.
Mr Burnside said lifesaving was at the heart of what it is to be Australian.
“There could be few better instances of lifesaving than saving the lives of desperate refugees trying to get themselves to safety,” he said.
“One way all Australians can help save the lives of people like that is by adopting a more enlightened approach to boat people generally.”
He said Mr Lewis’ experience showed helping people can actually enrich your own life.
“Australia agreed to resettle 12,000 Syrian refugees, but it sounds like the numbers they’re seeing in Lesbos can be 12,000 trying to land there in a month?” Mr Burnside said.
“Most Australians, I think, would respond the way Simon Lewis did if they saw a mother holding out her baby to save it from the ocean, but they failed to recognise that boat people don’t risk their lives out of fun.
“They do it because they are trying to escape a worse fate and we can actually help all of them by being prepared to receive and treat decently those who actually get here.”
This post originally appeared on ABC News.
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Top Comments
"International human rights lawyer Julian Burnside said Mr Lewis’ story was especially important on the eve of Australia Day."
He's absolutely correct........ Because Australia does NOT have people drowning at sea trying to get here. Australia does NOT lure people with open borders and Australia does NOT tempt people with the promise of rescue boats if you don't quite. make it, because Australia is better than that!.
This is horrible if he watched people drown, but as someone else here says, is that really against the law to do anything? Mind you I do also know that the UN, whilst in war zones, can't intervene even if they see a massacre go on. As harsh as this sounds it is because they are supposed to be neutral and if they get involved in anyway they risk their own lives and the UN's operation, not of course that I am entirely sure if I agree with that, but on the other hand they are presented with a very difficult problem.
It is awful to think people are being left to drown, and that horrifies me, but I am quite fed up with these constant articles that keep saying we lack compassion for not letting refugees in. We have an unofficial war with Islam at the moment and some refugees have entered countries that gave them asylum and subsequently committed terrorist acts which resulted in people dying, also we all know what happened to the German women on NYE.
This is not to suggest that all of these refugees are going to be terrorists or rapists, indeed it may only be a small percentage, but personally I think we are in our rights to be scared and hesitant to let people in, knowing that most likely some of them will end up committing terrorist acts. Do we notch up the westerners who die to collateral damage?
Also there is the issue of overcrowding, Sydney where a lot of them end up, is one of the least affordable cities in the world now, and I live in an area where most of the refugees end up. I'm guessing Julian Burnside lives in Killara or equally posh suburb where they probably have never seen a non white person!
I'm not saying that I don't want to help them, I'm saying that it is a complicated issue and I am sick of people being told that they are heartless or bigoted just because we have valid concerns.