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A West Belfast dad who travelled to Greece to help refugees has revealed he almost left a toddler lying in the water after mistaking the bundle for a ruck sac.

Musician Joby Fox spent Monday night hauling people from the waters off Lesbos after they made the treacherous journey on the dinghy from Turkey.

Joby, 53, said: “I just could not stand by and watch humanity being treated like this. I needed to go to them, I needed to offer my help and do what I could.

“I turned up last week and presented myself to a group looking after the refugees as they literally get out of the water, some get out alive, others wash up dead.

“Last night we could see the light in a dinghy coming towards us - we were using our lights to try to guide them in. As they got closer we could hear crying and calls for help. It was awful. Those poor people.

“We were shouting back trying to get them to turn away from the rocks but their dinghy crashed onto the rocks and they started spilling into the water.

“Some men and I had formed a human chain to try to get them to safety. It was chaotic, people were hysterical, crying, screaming. I’m in tears just thinking about their anguish.

“But we got them all off. The last man I help was dragging what I thought was a ruck sac behind him and we’d been telling them to let their bags go, they were sodden with water and dragging them under the water.

“But this man was shouting to me, shaking his head. I kept yelling at him leave it, leave it behind but he kept on coming. Then suddenly he pulled this bundle in front of him and I could hear laughing, high pitched giggling and I shone my torch on the man and I saw he a little boy, a toddler of about two years told.

“His dad had been dragging him through the water and I had been yelling at him to drop it, drop the bundle and then I saw what it was and I held my arms out and grabbed the wee boy and held him close to me.

“I couldn’t believe it. The wee pet thought he was having the time of his life not knowing he could die at amy moment. He just laughed and laughed. He’s never been in the water before and this big adventure he went on with his dad turned to great fun for him.

“I just cried when I was holding him. His dad was hugging me, I was hugging them both and we were all laughing and crying.

“I was such an emotional situation. I’m bubbling with emotions just talking about it.

“As a human being I’ve held out a hand to an other and helped him for a moment. That’s what life is all about, instead of political posturing. It’s about action, lateral thinking, helping, being human and looking after other people.”

Joby, who had a son of 18 months at home in Belfast, says he has been in Greece for almost a week and must contemplate his journey home soon.

But he says making the decision to walk away will be difficult.

He said: “When I saw the need of those people for myself, I was glad I made the decision to go to them.

“I know the UN and big NGOs are working hard to help people but there are so few actually plucking these people from the water.

“Very few of the refugees have even seen the sea, never mind learned to swim.

“They pay smugglers huge amounts of money to make the perilous journey from Turkey to Greece and so many of them die on what should be an hour’s dinghy journey. The dinghies are over loaded, people are terrified and many of them do not make it.

“Now I have to work out how to get out of here. My problem is I do not want to go. But I have a life back home in Belfast.

“I will have to come back but I would urge other people to help where they can. It doesn’t matter what colour or creed people are, what language they speak, there they come from, they are human beings and deserve to be treated as such.

“Mothers and fathers, children, friends, neighbours, strangers, they were all together in that dinghy and they were all saved last night. Going to Greece, turning up and saying how can I help had helped me understand that these people need as much compassion as possible.

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“The hugs and smiles and thank yous are enough to keep me going for a long time, those exhausted faces and tired bodies are safe now. They have only the clothes they were given when they were taken to the rescue centre, their vulnerability is clear to see. But they are alive and they have hope and I feel grateful to have been a tiny part of it.”

After the rescue efforts Job wrote on Facebook: “I’ve just pulled women and children and men from the sea, in the dark, in stiff winds and from a dingy that landed on rocks. What an experience. I’m shocked, exhilarated bewildered and a whole load of other emotions.

“I just got to north Lesbos tonight. I have wanted so much to help these beleaguered refuges. I was told that I shouldn’t go to the beach and instead that I should get some rest but i walked to a little enclave and as I arrived I saw a light signalling.

“Five or six people were on the beach with lights flshing back and that was the start of all - 20 to 30 mins later the dingy was in but it blew on to rocks. It was hairy business. I was amazed that all the volunteers on the beach where just people like me who had come just to see how they could help.

“No UN no anybody only people who aren’t prepared to sit back and allow our fellow human being’s perish like this - and all the while the politicians pontificate and hold back real aid for these people who have suffered enough.

“There are also great small NGOs here and some inspirational people. Their story’s must also be told some day.

”We will look back historically on these day and there will be those who will be proud of their response and there will be those who will be shamed.

“The Journey has just begun for these poor people who have given up every thing, their homes their country for a life of peace..and hope..We can give them both and we can show them compassion.”