Almost all those perished who were unable to reach the centre; the crowding of the people was such, that some were stifled by the weight of their comrades, who were falling upon them every moment.
" the soldiers and sailors, giving themselves up for lost, fell a-drinking until they lost their reason. In this state they carried their delirium so far as to display the intention of murdering their chiefs, and destroying the raft, by cutting the ropes which united its different parts. one of them advanced, armed with a hatchet, to cut the ligaments, which was the signal of revolt. The officers came forward to restrain these madmen: that one who was armed with a hatchet, with which he dared to threaten them, was killed with a stroke of a sabre. Many of the officers and some passengers joined us for the preservation of the raft. the revolted drew their sabres, and those who had none armed themselves with knives. We put ourselves in a posture of defence, and the combat commenced. One of the rebels raised his weapon against an officer; he fell that moment pierced with wounds. This firmness appeared for a moment to intimidate the mutineers; but they closed in with one another and retired aft, to execute their plan. One of them, feigning to repose himself, had begun to cut the ropes with a knife, when, being advertised of it by a domestic, we darted upon him: a soldier, wishing to defend him, threatened an officer with his knife, and aiming a blow at him, struck only his coat. The officer, turning about, floored his adversary, and threw him into the sea, as well as his comrade."
"The battle soon became general: the mast broke, and falling upon Captain Dupont, who remained senseless, nearly broke his thigh. He was seized by the soldiers, who threw him into the sea. We perceived this, and were in time to save him; we placed him on a barrel, whence he was torn by the mutineers, who wished to dig his eyes out with a knife. Roused by such ferocity, we charged them with fury, dashed through the lines which the soldiers had formed, sabre in hand, and many of them paid with their lives for their madness."
The passengers seconded us. After a second charge, the fury of the rebels was subdued, and gave place to the most marked cowardice; the greater part threw themselves on their knees, and asked pardon, which was unanimously granted."
Some sixty-five men died during the night. On the following day, the third of the raft's voyage, raging hunger drove some of the survivors to cannibalism. "Those whom death had spared in the disastrous night which I have described," wrote Savigny, "threw themselves ravenously on the dead bodies with which the raft was covered, cut them up in slices, which some even in that instant devoured. A great number of us at first refused to touch the horrible food; but at last, yielding to a want still more pressing than that of humanity, we saw in this frightful repast only deplorable means of prolonging existence; and I proposed, I acknowledge it, to dry these bleeding limbs, in order to render them a little more supportable to the taste. Some, however, had still courage enough to abstain from it, and to them a larger quantity of wine was granted."
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jul/07/people-smuggling-turkey-greece-exodus-bbc-tv-documentary
The Guardian
Shot by refugees … Exodus, the shocking documentary that puts you on the sinking ship
A groundbreaking new documentary gives cameras to refugees fleeing to Europe. The resulting three-part film takes you with them every step – from suburban flat to leaky dinghy to suffocating container
Amelia Gentleman
@ameliagentleman
Thursday 7 July 2016 07.00 BST
A few hours into Hassan Akkad’s crossing from Turkey to Greece in an overcrowded dinghy, he realises things are not looking good for him, or the 50 other refugees squeezed in beside him. He notices that there is half a foot of water in the boat. Gradually, the mounting alarm is caught on camera, as Akkad films the doomed journey on a hidden camera.A woman hugs her two children and says to her fellow passengers, who are piled on top of each other: “For God’s sake, guys, stop moving!” Another woman complains: “You are very heavy and you are sitting on my leg.” A further refugee, looking uncertainly out at rippling waves, says: “Thank God, the sea is fine.” Another suggests they all pray. “Returning to the lord is our final destiny,” they say in unison. “Peace be upon us.”
'€2,000 per person, kids half price, every kid under two-and-a-half goes free'
We’ve read about these terrible crossings too many times in the past year, but this is the first time footage has revealed so powerfully what is it like to be on a sinking boat, the engine no longer working, drifting somewhere between Greece and Turkey. The passengers study their mobile phones to see where they are, and whether they have crossed into Greek water. A while later, someone asks: “Is water still coming in?” Somehow Akkad manages to manoeuvre his phone so he captures the rising water levels between a tangle of legs. Soon, half the passengers are out of the boat, hanging on to the edges, trying in vain to bale out the water with small plastic water bottles.
The desperation of such refugees has become a familiar element of news bulletins, but what is different about Exodus – an extraordinary three-part documentary to be broadcast next week on BBC2 – is the way the film is pieced together with footage shot by refugees as they document their own journey. We are with them every step – as they negotiate with the people smugglers for a crossing to Greece (“€2,000 per person, kids half price, every kid under two-and-a-half goes free”), as their dinghy capsizes, as they climb in the back of the container lorries to be smuggled under the Channel, and find themselves near to suffocation when things do not go to plan.
Not even the most cavalier of documentary crews have been ready to hop into the unseaworthy rubber boats that ferry hundreds of migrants across the Mediterranean every night. Even if they were prepared to take the risk, the people smugglers, who are naturally publicity averse, would prohibit filming. The heroes of the documentary are Akkad and the other refugees who agreed to film their journey on camera phones, exposing themselves to even greater risks. Their bravery has helped create the most powerful and moving account of the refugee crisis to date.
Watching the footage of his narrow escape in a sinking boat is painful for Akkad, but he hopes the exercise will prove worthwhile if the film helps educate viewers about the crisis. “When you watch the news and see the movement of millions of people, you don’t identify with any of them. I wanted to humanise the story. I want people to understand what made us leave and what happened to us on the way.”
Akkad was an English teacher in Damascus before he was forced to flee after being jailed for taking part in an anti-government protest. His journey from Turkey to the UK took 87 days and he filmed all the way, risking the fury of traffickers who view cameras with profound suspicion. “For them the camera is like a Kalashnikov,” he says.
As attitudes towards migration shift and harden in the wake of the referendum, he hopes British politicians across the spectrum will see the film. “I cannot change politicians’ point of view, especially those who are anti-migration, but I hope they will watch and be more lenient.”
Exodus also follows Isra’a and her extended family, fleeing Syria after their home was bombed. She reveals what it feels like to be an 11-year-old Syrian girl, selling cigarettes illegally in a market square in Izmir, Turkey, to raise money for a place in an overcrowded dinghy bound for Greece. She helps us understand how it feels when your parents start arguing bitterly about the wisdom of putting a family of 16 people into a rubber boat.
The camera follows her as she and her father Tarek, as well as her siblings and cousins, prepare to leave for Greece, planning to make their way to Germany. She is a cheerful, smiling presence as the adults around her are torn apart by impossible decisions. She laughs when she recounts how the police slapped her recently, confiscating her father’s stock of cigarettes; we see her smiling, as she ducks into a side road and runs away from the police. We watch as she examines the best waterproof cases for mobile phones, in case the boat proves unseaworthy. The family shop for lifejackets and we see refugees discussing their concern that many of the lifejackets in the Turkish markets are fake, and actually help you to sink.
Isra’a claims she has no fear. If their boat were to capsize, she says her grandfather would rescue one sister, and her father would save the other. She says she knows how to save herself. Her father is terrified, having seen the images of Aylan Kurdi’s body being picked up on the shore, but he is trying to do the best for his family.
They abandoned a small restaurant in Syria to seek safety in Europe. Tarek finds the weight of the daily decision-making agonising. “I was against travelling by sea,” he says. “So many people die. My wife wants to go, I don’t want to go.” We see Isra’a, normally so upbeat, on the brink of tears as her parents argue. Finally her mother wins. “This is the hardest test of my life. We decided to take the dinghy, but my heart doesn’t feel good,” Tarek says. He has paid €12,000 for eight adults and eight children. Had they been able to take the ferry, it would have been safe and it would have cost €22 each.
The children claim they are calm. They have developed a disturbingly grim sense of perspective. “Nothing is scary. In Syria, the bombs were dropping on us,” one of them says. “At least in the grave we can rest,” another adds.
Director James Bluemel and producer Itab Azzam say that the film was extremely difficult to make – not for any shortage of subjects, but because it was so hard to keep track of the people to whom they had given camera phones. SIM cards stop working once they cross borders, and they occasionally lost contact with their subjects as they were swept in different directions through Europe.
Later, the film shows Isra’a’s elation at arriving safely in Greece (everyone has been crying and vomiting, Isra’a says) and captures the family’s almost instant sense of dismay as they look around and see scenes of squalor and chaos, families sleeping in the streets, no assistance on offer. Akkad says: “When we landed in Greece, our expectations didn’t align with reality. I thought there would be an organised structure, NGOs, volunteers.” He, like most refugees, has never previously experienced homelessness. “I was pampered in Damascus. I had my own room, my car. I never slept on the side of the road. I never went camping. I wanted to. I think I’ve done my share of camping now.”
Ahmad, an ex-English teacher from Aleppo who agreed to film for the BBC, says he tried to keep his spirits up when faced with the absence of a friendly welcome. “I convinced myself that the air smelt different from the Middle East, because you don’t want your hopes and dreams to let you down,” he says. Later he describes his sense of disillusionment when he finally arrives in England: “I survived Isis, I survived beheadings, Assad. I survived everything. I was almost killed – for a stupid idea called the UK.”
But Isra’a’s good spirits are apparently irrepressible. “It is fun walking in the rain,” she says, as they make slow progress on foot through Europe, her father carrying her severely disabled sister. It is only later, when she reflects on her journey from a position of safety, that she understands the enormity of what she has been through and begins to cry.
Akkad notices that the mood towards refugees has hardened in the months since he arrived in the UK, and he was particularly depressed by the Ukip Breaking Point poster, released a week before the referendum, showing queues of Syrian refugees crossing from Croatia to Slovenia.
“It broke my heart when I saw that poster. Those are traumatised people. They have been tortured, lost family members. These people could have been my neighbours. I hope this film will show people it’s not what you think. I hope my footage helps people understand that this is not an invasion.”
• Exodus is on BBC2, 11-13 July at 9pm.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3678336/It-chaos-15-years-ago-UK-Border-Force-warns-tens-thousands-illegal-immigrants-year-land-Dover-Calais-border-controls-scrapped.html
MailOnline
EXCLUSIVE - 'Prepare for the chaos of 15 years ago': UK Border Force union warns tens of thousands of illegal immigrants a year could land in Dover if Calais border controls are scrapped
French presidential hopeful calls for checks to relocate to Britain
Border force union claims move would lead to chaos of early 2000s
MP says Britain cannot accept ‘the illegal immigration of the past’
7,000 people are living in the make-shift encampment on outskirts of Calais
By NICK FAGGE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 12:20, 7 July 2016 | UPDATED: 13:47, 7 July 2016
Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants a year could land in Dover if the border controls at Calais are scrapped, the head of the UK Border Force union has warned.British authorities would be powerless to return the hundreds of stowaways caught every day trying to sneak aboard ferries to Britain main’s ports from Calais if French politicians follow through with their threat to end the deal, Lucy Moreton added.
Migrant camps could also spring up along England’s south coast as migrants flock into the country, following the suspension of UK border controls in northern France, a Kent politician fears.
Calls from French presidential hopeful Alain Juppe for the border to be moved from northern France back to Britain have been met with alarm by border officials, MPs and local people in Dover
An estimated 7,000 people from Africa, Asia and the Middle East are currently living in a make-shift encampment on the edge of Calais hoping to start a new life in Britain
Last year UK Border guards foiled 30,629 attempts to cross to Britain illegally between April and July – an annual rate of 92,000, according to the latest Home Office figures
Last year UK Border guards foiled 30,629 attempts to cross to Britain illegally between April and July – an annual rate of 92,000, according to the latest Home Office figures
French presidential front runner Alain Juppe said it was ‘logical’ for checks to take place on UK soil now Britain is leaving the EU
French presidential front runner Alain Juppe said it was ‘logical’ for checks to take place on UK soil now Britain is leaving the EU.
The front-runner to become the next French president has called for Britain’s border checks in Calais to be scrapped.
The arrangements are underpinned by the Le Touquet agreement sealed between Britain and France in 2002 which dramatically cut illegal immigration across the channel.
Mrs Moreton, general secretary of the ISU union which represents officers from the UK Border Force, Immigration Service and HM Revenue and Customs, claims the end of the Le Touquet deal would mean the return to the illegal immigration chaos of the 2000s when the numbers seeking asylum reached a staggering 84,132 a year.
Last year UK Border guards foiled 30,629 attempts to cross to Britain illegally between April and July – an annual rate of 92,000, according to the latest Home Office figures.
Speaking to the MailOnline, Mrs Moreton said: ‘If the UK border were shifted back to the UK from northern France we would return to the situation pre-2002.
Lucy Moreton, general secretary of the ISU union, told the MailOnline today: ‘If the UK border were shifted back to the UK from northern France we would return to the situation pre-2002. Freight and passenger traffic would cross the channel before seeing UK Border authorities.'
There are fears the UK authorities would buckle if border controls move back to Britain.
‘This means that the hundreds of irregular migrants detected every day whilst still in France but attempting to reach the UK who are currently simply returned to the French authorities would have arrived in the UK and would have to be processed here.
‘Although applications for entry may be ultimately unsuccessful this can be a lengthy process putting strains on the detention estate; as well as pressures on the benefits and other support systems.’
Folkestone and Hythe MP Damian Collins warned the threat must be taken seriously but said Britain cannot accept ‘the illegal immigration of the past’. He told MailOnline: ‘Alain Juppe is the front-runner in the French presidential elections so we have to take his threat to scrap the Le Touquet agreement seriously.
Andrew Richardson, UKIP group leader of Dover District Council, said: ‘The scrapping of the Le Touquet agreement could well be carnage for Dover and Folkestone.'
Under the terms of Le Touquet agreement, no change to the location of the Anglo-French border could legally be made for two years.
The hundreds of irregular migrants detected every day whilst still in France but attempting to reach the UK who are currently simply returned to the French authorities would have arrived in the UK and would have to be processed here.
A UKIP councillor claimed the scrapping of border controls in Calais would have a catastrophic effect on south of England.
‘The French cannot simply open the flood gates and let the thousands of migrants waiting in Calais to walk through the Channel Tunnel.
‘This is a potentially catastrophic result of the Brexit vote.
‘The disruption [to cross-channel traffic] last summer by the migrants was disastrous for Dover and Folkestone.’
He added: ‘If a jungle-style migrant camp were to open in Dover UKIP would have to share some of the responsibility for it happening because we have called for Britain to leave the EU.
‘But the French have been calling for the scrapping of the Le Touquet agreement long before the Brexit vote. So this problem could have arisen whether we were in the EU or not.
‘The existence of a migrant camp on either side of the channel – in Calais or Dover – shows that we have failed to deal with this problem effectively.’
Debbie Brooks, legal secretary, said: ‘I think the Border Agency and HM Customs are stretched enough as it is, I don’t know how they would be able to cope.'
Glenn Morley said leaving the EU was a bad idea and had triggered the potential problem of the border being moved: ‘There would be thousands of people arriving on our shores and we won’t know who they are.'
Paul Cooper, 52, added: ‘It’s sad for the people that are in France and want to come to Britain but we can’t afford to look after everyone.’
Yesterday people in Dover told of their fears at the threat of large scale illegal immigration and migrant camps near their homes.
Susan Fellows, 72, said: ‘We don’t want all those people coming over from Calais. We can barely look after our own people, let alone look after everyone else.’
Debbie Brooks, legal secretary, 57, said: ‘Bringing the border controls back to Dover would not be good.
‘I think the Border Agency and HM Customs are stretched enough as it is, I don’t know how they would be able to cope.
‘Having a migrant camp in Dover would certainly put people off from coming to the area.
‘And if people are able to get across easily then it will encourage others to try to come illegally too.’
Paul Cooper, 52, unemployed said: ‘The UK border moving from Calais to Dover would be a bad thing.
P&O Ferries say they are confident new measures will be put in place to prevent illegal immigrants over-running their services from Calais to Dover if UK border controls in France are scrapped.
Spokesman Dan Bridgett told MailOnline: ‘Under the terms of Le Touquet agreement, no change to the location of the Anglo-French border could legally be made for two years.
‘Given that the French presidential election is not until May 2017, then in practical terms the earliest that current arrangements could be changed is May 2019 – three years away.
‘By that time, we very much hope that alternative arrangements would have been made which minimise disruption at the ports of Calais and Dover and ensure the smooth running of cross-channel ferry services, which is vital in the interests of both countries.’
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