Syrian refugees Muhammad and Alaa were shown at Milan railway station wanting to reach the UK. They made it to Calais in France and spent several weeks in the makeshift camp there trying to find a way to cross the Channel into the UK.
They ultimately abandoned the idea as too difficult and dangerous and travelled to Germany to apply for asylum there. Amos met up with them again in Germany and picked up their story for Dateline:
Source: SBS
Carlotta Dazzi was one of the Italian volunteers filmed at Milan railway station. She’s been volunteering to help the migrants for several days a week for over a year. Even on a sailing holiday in Greece with her family, she helped rescue 45 Syrian refugees whose inflatable was dashed on rocks near the island of Kos.
This is how she described the scene to Dateline: "Pserimos. Tiny, tiny, tiny island in front of Kos. It’s 4am. 45 Syrian asylum seekers, among whom 11 kids under one year of age, thrown around on the rocks in the middle of the night in front of our boat on a raft falling to pieces.
Source: SBS
Screaming, crying, palpable fear while we tried to go to their rescue in the darkness. They thought they had reached Kos and, full of fear, were trying to climb a very high mountain of rocks.
After a few calls to the sound of "yalla yalla, we are Italian, trust us", we managed to make them descend and to take them all to safety on the beach, in order to then escort them on foot to a little town and help them understand where they were, take a breath, dry their children and talk to the captain of the ferry that this afternoon at 5pm will take them to Kalymnos.
Let’s hope towards the beginning of a better life. I can’t think of anything else but them... And I can’t help but always feel utterly helpless in front of the tragedy of asylum seekers."
Share
