Refugee crisis part of Canmore doctor's mission with Doctors Without Borders

Early one foggy morning a group of doctors aboard a ship in the middle of the Mediterranean Seaawoke to an incredible sight aboat crammed with peopleand as the fog lifted, four more boats appeared out of the mist.

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There was nothing else on the horizon, but the2,400 people crowded onto rubber rafts and dilapidated wooden boats.

It's a moment Dr. Bryant Simon will never forget. The emergency room doctor from Canmore had volunteered with Doctors Without Borders (Mdecins Sans Frontires MSF) and this was the mission he'd been given.

He was willing to go wherever they needed him, but he never expected he'd be on a rescue ship in the middle of the Mediterranean.

Floating hospital

The mission of the doctors on board the MY Phoenix was to intercept thousands of sick and dying Syrian refugees and give them the medical help they needed.

"That brought the scale home," said Simon of the surreal sight on the sea that day.

For the next nine months, the 40-metre search-and-rescue vessel would be his base at a critical point in the Syrian refugee crisis, where a record number of migrants were fleeing their war-ravaged country.

When the mission began in April 2015, the only rescue vessels plying the sea were the MSF ship, a few Italian coastgaurdboats, and several merchant marine vessels near the coast of Libya.

By April, the death toll of the fleeing Syrians had reach 2,000 in that area alone, said Bryant.

"There was a hue and cry and so much attention and at that point the efforts were ramped up for rescue at sea."

Crowded, dilapidated boats

Within 24 hours,the MSF ship had 369 people on board from one sinking wooden boat and the boats kept coming.

As of last week, the number of migrants crossing the sea in one month had surpassed 200,000.

Come fall and winter, the Mediterranean can become unpredictable and rough and the temperatures much chillier, making passage even more dangerous.

"They are in are cheaply made rubber inflatable boats, good for 100 to 120 people or they would be old wooden fishing boats with the cabins removed and the decks reinforced from below, and packed with hundreds of people and about 40 per cent below deck."

Bryant would treat people for a range of illnesses: seasickness, skin abscesses, scabies and old injuries from physical torture. Besides being terrified, most people were exhausted.

Once they leave Syria, it's a long, hard road. "They leave their countries not for the dream of Europe but because it's a nightmare situation. Then things gradually get worse, en route."

Thousands had crossed the Sahara, and then end up in illegal detention centres in Libya where they are extorted for money from their familiesback homebefore they're released, Bryant heard.

He points out that two per cent of the people who attempt to cross the central Mediterranean from Libya to Europe, died this year. That's one in 50.

They'd come on board and go to sleep, he says. "We'd hear people say 'That's the best sleep I've had in years' and it was lying on a metal deck on this ship."

A few happy moments

Amid all the suffering, Bryant said there were some happy times.

"The best moments by far, would be arriving within sight of Europe and experiencing the emotions of the people on board, their gratitude, their euphoria they would sing," he says.

"Many of them would have been dead had we not been there to pick them up."

Back at home now, Bryant says the experience has changed him.

"I've been home a month and I am profoundly grateful for everything we enjoy in Canada. On a personal level I feel softer towards people . .. and some of the hard edge is knocked off."

Alberta is also expecting to see an influx ofrefugees in the near future after the Liberal government set theambitious goal ofbringing25,000 Syrian refugees to Canadaby the end of the year.