Dazed and exhausted children find solace in his embrace, clutching on to him, without even knowing who he is. Drenched parents entrust their children to him as they wade in the shallow waters.
Anxiety, shrieks, torn life vests, missing people, drowned people near the shore – all of these elements were part of the dramatic scenes when a migrant boat capsized off the shore of Eftalou, on the island of Lesvos, last October, as recounted by Oscar Camps, the founder of the NGO Proactiva Open Arms, who has participated in countless refugee and migrant rescue missions in the Aegean and the central Mediterranean.
Between September, 2015, and December, 2017, Camps’ NGO reportedly saved 57,584 migrants and refugees on Lesvos and in the central Mediterranean, in operations that have been featured by global media such as The New York Times, the Guardian, and the BBC.
Still, Camps says nothing has moved him as much the scenes during his first days on Lesvos in September, 2015. “Boats full of desperate people arrived daily on the shores and there was nobody there to help. We were all alone,” he declares.
Ta Nea interviewed Camps in Athens a few days before his return to Lesvos with Laura Lanuza, a representative of the NGO, which is comprised of professional lifeguards, doctors and expert personnel.
Proactive Open Arms was born on Lesvos and is now active as well in the central Mediterranean.
“Greece, Italy and Spain are the maritime borders of Europe, and the migrant flows continue. Everyone must become sensitised to what is happening at sea,” says Camps, as he shares shocking rescue videos on his laptop.
“Look at this. The dead and the living on the same boat,” he proclaims as scenes from a salvation operation last July off the coast of Libya, near the human smuggling hub of Sabratha, roll by on the laptop.
The Spanish father of four was the proprietor of a Barcelona-based lifeguard and aquatic safety company when he first encountered the heart-wrenching images of dead children in the Aegean, and asked himself, “Why don’t we do something?” After the October capsizing of a boat, he and his team became more widely known as the Spanish lifeguards.
Eleni Evangelodimou
