1. The landscape of a tragedy in the eastern Aegean
The October 28, 2015 shipwreck that I write about in A Greek Tragedy: One Day, A Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis happened in the narrow ribbon of the Aegean that separates Turkey from the Greek island of Lesvos. I have visited both coasts multiple times, both during the height of the refugee crisis in the fall of 2015 when up to nine thousand refugees landed on Lesvos every day, and later when I returned to research this book.
These photos show the landscape and some of the important sites in the book, including the port on the Turkish coast where smugglers launched the overcrowded boat into dangerous winds.
(All photos by Jeanne Carstensen)
2. Shipwreck: October 28, 2015
The morning of October 28, 2015 dawned cool and breezy. Gale-force winds were expected later in the day. I was on shorelines of Lesvos reporting on the refugee crisis for The World and Foreign Policy when word spread around the island that a wooden boat carrying hundreds of refugees had sunk in the middle of the channel. I felt a sense of dread as I peered out at slicks of orange in the turbulent seas — people in life jackets struggling to stay afloat.
Thousands of refugees were crossing to Lesvos every day that fall, yet the Hellenic Coast Guard and Frontex, the European Border Control, were not prepared to handle a mass rescue. Greek and Turkish fishermen and four Spanish lifeguards joined the effort, but at least seventy six-people died in the incident, the largest loss of life in the Aegean that year.
I am not a photo journalist and these photos only present a few glimpses into what unfolded on October 28. To tell the full story — of the refugees on the boat and the locals and rescuers who tried to help them — I spent six years researching and writing A Greek Tragedy, coming soon.
(All photos by Jeanne Carstensen)
