91Èȱ¬

Programmes

Last updated: 4 march, 2011 - 14:24 GMT

Dramatic Sea Rescue

Outlook, captain, erik, martin, remeeus, remeus, sea rescue, Afghan, refugees, migrants, Corfu, Greek, boat, ship, cargo, momentum, scan

To play this content JavaScript must be turned on and the latest Flash player installed.

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.

Outlook, captain, erik, martin, remeeus, remeus, sea rescue, Afghan, refugees, migrants, Corfu, Greek, boat, ship, cargo, momentum, scan

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

Download and subscribe to our podcast for free

Become our friend and get talking

Follow our tweets to continue the conversation

Extraordinary personal stories from around the world

91Èȱ¬ iD

91Èȱ¬ navigation

91Èȱ¬ © 2014 The 91Èȱ¬ is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.