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Ship's captain Martin Erik Remeeus led a dramatic rescue of 223 Afghan refugees from a sinking fishing boat off the coast of Greece earlier this year.
When he first saw the distress signal on the cargo ship's computer he thought there had been a mistake.
The message coming into the bridge said that there were more than 250 people crammed onto a nearby fishing boat that was just 20 metres long.
Martin's cargo ship had left Venice and was heading for Ukraine, but he quickly changed course through choppy seas towards the stricken boat of Afghan refugees 17 nautical miles away, off the coast of the Greek island of Corfu.
People were panicking this much that...they actually crawled over each other, some people were pulled back by their fellow refugees
Captain Martin Erik Remeeus
The refugees were believed to have been heading towards Italy. They are now in Athens waiting for their cases to be heard.
Martin tells Lucy Ash about the 'nightmarish' sights and sounds of that night.
First broadcast 4 March 2011
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