Cruise passengers watch the rescue operation for the refugees. Photo / Megan Singleton
Cruise passengers watch the rescue operation for the refugees. Photo / Megan Singleton
Passengers on a cruise ship which lowered food, blankets and a doctor to a dinghy full of refugees in the Aegean Sea have spent a day at the port the migrants were taken to.
Kiwi travel writer Megan Singleton, who was on board the vessel, said seeing the refugee-laden boat was heartbreaking and fascinating at the same time.
Passengers of the Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas were alerted to the unplanned stop by an announcement just before 6am local time on Wednesday (4pm NZT).
"I've got a photo there of a woman with her croissant, leaning over the side of the ship watching. It was a very sobering experience." Photo / Megan Singleton
A Royal Caribbean spokeswoman confirmed today the ship's crew stopped for a few hours to assist the migrants.
The ship was sailing to Kusadasi in Turkey when it spotted a small boat in the ocean, she said.
It was filled with 45 refugee women, men and children, floating a kilometre out from the luxury liner, which carries up to 2440 passengers.
Thousands of desperate people have fled war and poverty in countries such as Syria and Afghanistan and braved the risky sea journey to seek sanctuary in Europe. But disasters at sea have claimed the lives of many.
Crew members notified Turkish coastguard and waited with the small boat until they arrived, providing food, water and medical treatment, the spokeswoman said.
Ms Singleton said it was sobering to see her ship's spotlight shining on the tiny boat in the darkness, highlighting the divide between the rich travellers and the refugees.
She went ashore in Kusadasi that day to find out what had happened to the migrants.
"One of the vendors for one of the shops said to me, 'There's no one left in Syria anymore, they're all here'," she told NZME News Service. "There are just thousands and thousands of them in the camps. Turkey is just overwhelmed by refugees."
The cruise ship tender boat speeds off to help. Photo / Megan Singleton
The cruise ship's crew did a fantastic job, Ms Singleton said - watched over by about 50 other passengers from an upstairs deck.
Once the coastguard arrived, the refugees were taken on board and transferred to camps, leaving the small boat behind. "The boat in the water looked to be sinking," Ms Singleton said.
"When you put the two side-by-side, which is what happened today, [you have] the rich people on the cruise ship alongside the migrants. I've got a photo there of a woman with her croissant, leaning over the side of the ship watching. It was a very sobering experience."
You can just make out the light in the distance. Photo / Megan Singleton
Ms Singleton has also written about her experience on her Travel Blogger at Large blog, stating: "How they must have looked up at the two ships and wished they were us. And you know what, they deserve to be us. How tiny am I in a sea of no solutions."
It is unclear where the refugees had come from.
And it's not the first time the ship has stopped to help refugees. In August, it provided food and water to another group of migrants, before putting them on a sturdier boat headed to a nearby Greek island.
Figures from the International Organisation for Migration show that last month, 169 people drowned or went missing in the Aegean Sea - 44 of them children.
The coastguard website indicates 64,928 "irregular migrants" have been detained under a programme to maintain safety and security at sea.
Under maritime law, nation states and ships have an obligation to assist "persons in distress at sea, regardless of their nationality, status, or circumstances in which they were found".
