A 50-day-old baby was saved by locals on Greece’s island of Tilos on Saturday after a boat of refugees was abandoned by smugglers on the shores of the small island.
In a harrowing story that demonstrates the perils thousands of people face in the Mediterranean every year, the Greek island of Tilos once again shows a face of humanity and compassion.
Smugglers abandoned dozens of vulnerable individuals, all refugees and migrants, including pregnant women, children and infants. The smugglers left them on the island’s rocky shores, leaving them without any assistance whatsoever.
The shocking story of a 50-day-old baby, who survived for three entire days on the mountainside has sparked waves of compassion across Greece.
The parents of the baby did not know what to do and where to go to ask for assistance. Therefore they desperately had to mix seawater with his milk to ensure the child had something to eat to survive.
This unbelievable story has captured the hearts of many in Greece, a country that has had to bear an unfair load of the European refugee and migrant crisis for years.
The infant, following the rescue of the abandoned refugees, was named Jonas by the locals (Ionas in Greek) after a monk who was once washed ashore on the island of Tilos.
The mayor of Tilos, Maria Kamma, published on Facebook the details of this incredible rescue story.
Kamma praised the community of Tilos who rushed to support as much as they could the 50-day-old baby along with all the other refugees who had been stranded in a remote and rocky shore for three days.
”A pregnant woman trapped on the mountain, babies and children thrown to precipitous parts of the island, women injured, men badly beaten by the Turkish smugglers. All these make up the scene of despair experienced by the society of my island in the last several months,” the mayor wrote on her Facebook page.
The Hellenic Coast Guard, along with local authorities, launched yesterday this much-needed rescue operation to locate and save the stranded refugees immediately after the news of the incident was made public. The Greek authorities successfully rescued 36 individuals, including 18 men, 9 women, and 9 minors, all of whom were found to be in good health.
Greece’s Tilos, the island that saved the 50-day baby refugee
Tilos is a small island in the Dodecanese region of Greece in the southeastern part of the Aegean Sea.
With a permanent population of less than 800 residents, Tilos is one of the least-known islands of the Dodecanese, something that adds to its charm.
Unfortunately, as many other Greek islands, Tilos has been experiencing its fair share of exposure to the smugglers who attempt the perilous journey to bring devastated refugees and migrants to European shores, primarily from Turkey.
