Ex-City banker who is now saving desperate migrants in the Med

 
Safe haven: Henry Gray looks out on a dinghy carrying migrants. Inset, Mr Gray

A former City worker today told of the desperate plight of migrants and refugees crossing the Mediterranean after spending the past month co-ordinating the rescue of 1,234 crammed into nine small boats.

Henry Gray said the boats, mostly dinghies, had been launched by traffickers from Libya and were bound for Italy. They included small children, pregnant women and people with gunshot wounds and broken bones.

Mr Gray, 41, managed a 24-strong crew, including doctors and nurses, as part of the mission for London-based Médecins Sans Frontières. About 137,000 migrants and refugees risked the perilous crossing in the first half of 2015, an 83 per cent annual increase.

Summer sees increased attempts and while 80 drowned in May and June, it was significantly fewer than the 1,308 deaths in April that spurred the broadening of EU navy search and rescue missions.

Mr Gray, right, a full-time MSF field co-ordinator formerly employed on the Deutsche Bank convertible bonds desk, said: “You come across these tiny, fragile, inflatable boats half the length of a London bus crammed with 130 people. They don’t expect to make the journey alive. Those who can afford it buy a life jacket and write the telephone number of their mother or father, and it says: ‘If my body is found please call my mother or father’. Those who can’t afford a life jacket write it on their jeans or on their shirt.”

Migrants told rescue crews the boats were launched from the Libyan port of Misrata at about 10pm. Eight were inflatable, one was wooden and while all had engines, many of them were broken and the vessels were adrift.

Most were found by rescuers before sunset the following day, with many dehydrated. Mr Gray added: “They are often terrified and in really bad shape because they’ve been in these tiny boats in the big blue with not enough water or food, including women in late stages of pregnancy.”

Mr Gray said he dealt with people from more than 30 countries including Libya, Syria, Eritrea, Somalia, Nigeria and Bangladesh. Some said they paid thousands of euros to people smugglers.

Once rescued by MSF, the migrants are checked by medics before sailing to Italy for immigration claims processing.

For more information go to msf.org.uk

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