The British rescuer and activist Brian Dunn documented one of the painful stories of the sinking of refugee boats, which he experienced several weeks ago in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea between the continents of Africa and Europe.
Brian Dan said - in a series of tweets on his Twitter account - that he was a few weeks ago on an exploration tour with the "Sea-Watch" team - a German non-governmental organization working in the Mediterranean to rescue refugees - when they spotted a refugee boat sinking in sea water 10 km away. miles of them.
He explained that the team's plane spotted about 50 refugees in the water after their boat crashed, and immediately, "We set off at full speed, and were able to see the refugees in the water clearly, and the Libyan Coast Guard had preceded us to the place."
Regarding what he saw for a moment and arrived, Brian Dunn said, "There were so many people in the water, calling for help, and in desperation beating the sea, they were unable to swim, and although some of them were wearing life jackets, they were struggling to keep their heads above the water, it was Those are their last moments of panic."
The British lifeguard added that the first survivors were two people who fought on the same life raft, then another person approached them.
While Brian Dan and the "Sea-Watch" team were busy with search and rescue operations, the Libyan coast guard ship remained in front of them, and despite the horror of the tragedy that the survivors were experiencing in those moments, one of them - according to Brian Dunn - kept screaming "with his lips trembling due to his low body temperature" and says "No Libya! No Libya!"
For fear of being handed over to the Libyan Coast Guard.
In another scene, Brian Dan said that he saw a girl on the Libyan ship throwing herself into the sea. "The girl had a fight with a guard and then jumped into the sea and swam towards us."
Although she was not good at swimming - as Brian Dunn later discovered - she preferred to risk her life rather than return to Libya, as "they were all very terrified."
Ten miles on the speedboat takes a while.
I wear that it just doesn't go any faster than I took it.
37kn pretty much all the way, scanning the horizon.
Looking.
All the while knowing that people were drowning.
I knew we wouldn't be able to save them all, and we didn't.
pic.twitter.com/GHp23DKhsN
— Bren Dan (@_Brendan01_) April 22, 2022
Brian Dan added that they did not provide first aid or blankets to everyone who was rescued, and that they preferred to devote themselves to saving as many migrants as possible, as some of the rescued extended a helping hand to the team and participated in the search operations.
He reported that the boat was carrying 55 African refugees who set off from the Libyan border in search of safety on the European continent, 38 people survived, including two pregnant women, in the last month, and 18 others drowned.
When the rescue operations ended, some survivors, according to Brian Dunn, "were on the verge of death due to a sharp drop in their body temperature, some could not sit down from exhaustion, some were unconscious, others were shaking badly, and some were severely burned due to the fuel leaking from their mixed boat with salt water.”
Regarding the fate of the survivors, Brian Dan said that after the end of the tormenting journey experienced by the African migrants, the rescue ship docked on the coast of Sicily in Italy, and the survivors received first aid, before being transferred to the hospital, where they stayed for several days.
Brian Dan was deeply affected by what happened to one of the survivors, a 17-year-old Liberian, and his brother Samuel (19 years old) had left their homeland 3 years ago, and the latter was one of the victims, and his surviving brother was asking me: How do I tell my mother that my brother died?
I simply said: I don't know, my friend, but when the time comes you will find the right words.
The British activist believes he will never forget that moment, and the poor boy's condition "my heart breaks for him".
Brian Dunn criticized European governments, accusing them of being behind repeated drowning incidents because of their strict measures to prevent the influx of refugees to their borders and coasts, stressing that "no one deserves to drown in the sea, we need to change, tens of thousands have drowned in this sea in recent years." ".
He stressed that these incidents do not come by chance, as European governments have prevented all rescue ships from carrying out their work to rescue refugees, according to him, and he said, "They are letting people drown in our waters to create a deterrent."
Brian Dunn condemned the media's coverage of the tragic incidents of migrants, and called for standing up to European governments, and not remaining silent about what is happening, so that "more boys like Samuel do not drown again."