Patrick J. Mcdonnell

The gray rubber dinghy that carries Huda Malak，pregnant with her first child，sags to sea level as it approaches Lesbos.The overloaded raft has been taking on water since it launched from a crag off the Turkish shore，about six miles away.

The 18 Syrians on board desperately try to bail water from the sinking craft.Weight，they need to shed weight.They start jettisoning backpacks that hold most everything they still own.A trip that should have taken 45 minutes has lasted double that，and they are still a mile from the Greek island.

Suddenly，Malak's husband，Tarek Sheikh，stands up.

"I'm doing this to save you，our child，and everyone on board，"Sheikh tells her.

Then he jumps overboard.

His weight makes the difference，and the raft chugs toward land as Malak looks back to where her husband disappeared into the Aegean.

Finally，the boat makes one last thrust and scutters onto a pebble beach.

"Thank God，we are alivel"shouts Firas Gharghoori，a thick，compact man in shorts and a straw fedora，kneeling on the polished stones in a prayer of gratitude.

The new arrivals begin to wander away from the shore，but Malak remains.She crouches with knees bent，face cradled in her hands，her eyes focused on the sea.Fellow migrants approach to offer support to the 23-year-old schoolteacher，their elation at having made it to Europe tempered.She waves them off.

Without warning，Sheikh's younger brother，Mohammed，takes off his shirt and plunges into the surf in a bid to rescue Sheikh-soon followed by a grizzled Greek restaurateur who has wandered to the scene.The Greek later swims back，his leg bloodied from the rocks.He gamely tries to maneuver a white paddle boat to sea as a makeshift rescue craft.It doesn't get very far.

A Greek coast guard vessel appears offshore，but far from where Sheikh disappeared.Gharghoori frantically signals at the cutter to move to the left.A coast guard officer in aviator sunglasses，who is in radio contact with the cutter，arrives in a pickup.In broken English，he tries to calm everyone.A few minutes later，he approaches Malak and gives the thumbs-up sign.

Her husband，the hero of the gray rubber boat，is safe.His brother has been rescued too.

This year，more than 2，500 refugees and migrants have died trying to reach Europe in an armada of flimsy rubber dinghies and rickety fishing boats.

Tens of thousands of others are willing to take the risk.But they make it.

灰色橡皮艇一直在向水面下沉，胡达·马拉克坐在艇上，腹中怀着她的第一个孩子，橡皮艇已经靠近莱斯博斯岛了。这艘超载的小艇从六英里外的土耳其海峡出发时起就开始进水。

艇上18个叙利亚人拼命地往外舀水，但小艇还是在慢慢下沉。重量，他们必须减轻重量。他们开始扔掉背包，虽然里面装的是他们现在仅剩的一些东西。此次航行本来只需要45分钟，两倍的时间过去了，他们离那座希腊小岛还有一英里。

突然，马拉克的丈夫，塔里克·谢赫，站了起来。

“我这么做是为了救你和我们的孩子，以及船上的每一个人。”谢赫告诉她。

然后他跳下了船。

他的重量改变了一切，小艇驶向陆地，马拉克回头看着她丈夫消失的爱琴海。

终于，小艇最后一冲，冲上了布满鹅卵石的海滩。

“谢天谢地，我们还活着！”Firas Gharghoori喊道。他是个粗壮结实的男人，穿着短裤，戴着一顶草帽，跪在光滑的石头上做感谢的祷告。

刚刚抵达的一群人开始陆续离开海滩，但马拉克没有。她蹲在那里，双手捂着脸，眼睛盯着大海。同行的人靠近她，想去安慰这位23岁的学校教师。抵岸的快乐是短暂的，她挥挥手示意他们离开。

突然，谢赫的弟弟穆罕默德脱掉衬衫，一头扎进了海水中，去救谢赫一一很快一个碰巧看到这一幕的头发花白的希腊餐馆老板也跳进了海水中。希腊人后来游了回来，他的腿被岩石划伤了。他没放弃，依然试图用一艘白色的明轮轮船充当临时救生艇，不过它也没开多远。

一艘希腊海岸巡查船出现在附近，但是离谢赫消失的地方很远。Gharghoori疯狂地示意那艘船向左开。一个戴着墨镜的海岸警卫队的人开着一辆小卡车过来了，他可以用无线电和巡查船联系。他用很不流利的英语试图让大家都安静下来。几分钟后，他走到马拉克身边，向她竖起了大拇指。

她丈夫，灰色橡皮艇上的英雄，安然无恙。他的弟弟也被救起了。

这一年，2500多名难民和移民在试图用橡皮艇和破旧渔船渡海到欧洲的途中丧生。

还有数以万计的人甘冒这个险。但他们成功地做到了。

Men jump out first，giving a hand to women and children，who sit low in the middle of boats that are inevitably crammed with far too many passengers.Backpacks and shoes are tossed to the beach in the faint hope of keeping them dry.Some flip their life jackets in the air，like soccer players shedding their shirts after a goal.

Edward Mardini，his trousers and shirt plastered onto his thin frame，liberates a phone from several layers of plastic wrap and tries to keep from dripping on it as he dials Damascus.

"Father，we made it to Europe！"Mardini shouts into the phone，tears welling behind his spectacles.He fires a celebratory safety flare into the air，sending red sparks into the azure sky.

His 5-year-old son，Michel，keeps blowing the red whistle he was given when boarding the boat，seeming to find some comfort in the repetitive act.

The narrow ribbon of water between Turkey and Greece where Homeric protagonists once sailed to immortality has become a heavily traveled thoroughfare in the depopulation of Syria，a nation whose relentless destruction has touched off one of the biggest waves of human migration since World War ll.

男人们首先跳下船，然后搭把手帮着女人和孩子们下来，每一艘船都无一例外地严重超载。背包和鞋被扔到岸上，以期不被弄湿。有些人脱下救生衣，在空中挥舞，就像足球运动员在进球后脱下衬衫挥舞一样。

爱德华·马蒂尼的裤子和衬衫紧贴在他瘦瘦的身躯上。他从层层塑料包裹中拿出一个手机，一边竭力不让水滴到上面，一边拨通了大马士革的电话。

“爸爸，我们到欧洲了。”马蒂尼对着电话大声喊着，眼镜后面泪如泉涌。他向空中燃放了一个庆祝安全的闪光信号弹，它在蔚蓝的天空发出红色的火花。

他5岁的儿子迈克尔不停地吹着上船时得到的一只红色口哨，似乎从那重复的动作中寻到了些许安慰。

土耳其和希腊之间的这道狭窄海峡，荷马笔下的主人公曾渡过它建立不朽功名，如今却成了叙利亚人逃难的要道。这个饱受战乱之苦的民族已经促发了二战以来最大的移民潮之一。

More than half of Syria's prewar population of 22 million is adrift，including 4 million refugees who have fled abroad and 8 million Syrians forced from their homes but still living in the war-ravaged country.

Tens of thousands of Syrians，along with migrants from Afghanistan，Africa and elsewhere，have surged toward Europe seeking refuge in such relatively generous nations as Germany and Sweden.

The mass exodus has created an anarchic human caravan that appears beyond control.Clashes have broken out with authorities from the Greek islands to Budapest to the German-Danish border，creating a crisis for bewildered European policymakers who are throwing up walls and razor wire and dispatching riot police along porous frontiers.

This year alone，close to half a million migrants have crossed the Mediterranean and reached Europe，according to the International Organization for Migration，a Geneva-based intergovernmental body.

Almost 350，000 migrants-a nearly eight-fold increase from all of 2014-have arrived by sea in Greece，a critical hub in the new migration because it affords relatively easy access to the rest of Europe from Turkey，which borders Syria and connects with land routes to Asia.

叙利亚战前人口2200万，半数以上都在漂泊不定中，其中400万难民已逃往国外，还有800万人被迫离开家乡却依然生活在这个战火纷飞的国家。

成千上万的叙利亚人和来自阿富汗、非洲及其他地区的移民一起涌向欧洲，前往德国和瑞典这些政策相对宽松的国家避难。

大规模的逃离制造了大批不受控制的无政府主义的移动人群。从希腊群岛到布达佩斯到德国和丹麦边界，冲突时有发生，令欧洲统治者如临大敌，他们纷纷在边境筑起高墙，拉起铁丝网，并往边境派出防暴警察。

据设在日内瓦的国际移民组织统计，仅这一年，就有将近50万移民渡过地中海，抵达欧洲。

大约有35万移民渡海来到希腊，这几乎比2014年全年的移民数量多了八倍。与毗邻叙利亚、连接欧亚大陆的土耳其相比，希腊更便于他们去往欧洲，因此成了这批新移民的重要落脚点。

They come，like the Mardini family，with a cellphone，a backpack or two and their remaining life savings in U.S.dollars stashed away in their clothing.Many have sold everything to pay smugglers to cross from Turkey，and to cover additional smuggling and travel fees farther on.

Doctors and teachers，engineers and housewives，they board boats from secluded coastal strips in Turkey and aim for the rocky shores of Lesbos，Kos and other nearby Greek islands，the distant vessels appearing as black specks on the horizon.From the beaches of Lesbos，many face a 40-mile walk to the nearest processing center，because Greek officials restrict access to buses or taxis in a failed attempt to stem the illicit arrivals.

The refugees often spend days awaiting Greek permission to leave the islands before boarding ferries for Piraeus，the port of Athens，and then embarking upon a new and sometimes perilous journey through the Balkans and on to Hungary， Austria and Germany.

The Mardini family began their odyssey in Bab Touma，a mostly Christian district in the Old City of Damascus that is a frequent target of insurgent shelling.But before that，they'd already moved twice from war-battered suburbs to flee bombardment.

"My older boy was having a lot of problems because of the war，the shelling，"says Mardini's wife，Sara Azar，standing on the beach and cradling her l-year-old son，Mark，who is still wearing his bright orange life jacket."He was starting to stutter.He was so afraid."

Mardini quickly calls the smuggler in Turkey who'd arranged their passage on the boat，reading a code that will release the smuggler's fee from a kind of escrow account.lt's between $800 and $1，200 per head for a trip that costs $17 on a legal ferry.With payment on arrival，smugglers theoretically have a financial motivation to ensure that their clients reach the other side.

"Abu Hussein，"he tells the trafficker，using the man's nickname."I cherish Allah，the prophets and you！"

像马蒂尼一家一样，他们来了，随身带着一只手机、一两个背包，并将一生的积蓄全都换成美元缝在衣服里。很多人变卖了全部家当才凑够钱给走私贩，换得从土耳其过来的机会，要继续向前走，他们还得加钱。

医生、教师、工程师和主妇们，他们从土耳其隐蔽的码头登船，向莱斯博斯岛、科斯岛或别的希腊小岛进发，远处的船只看上去就像地平线上的黑点。从莱斯博斯岛海滩出发，他们还要步行40英里才能抵达最近的休息站，因为希腊政府限制公交和出租车来此载客，原想以此减少偷渡客的到来，只是未能如愿。

这些难民通常会在这儿待上几天，等待希腊方面的离岛许可，然后登上渡轮前往雅典的港口城市比雷埃夫斯，然后开始一段新的、有时也是危险的旅程——穿过巴尔干半岛，然后去往匈牙利、奥地利和德国。

马蒂尼一家的长途冒险之旅是从Bab Touma开始的，那是大马士革老城的基督教徒聚居区，也是反政府武装集中轰炸的地区。但在那之前，为了躲避轰炸，逃离战火肆虐的郊区，他们已经两度搬迁了。

“因为战争和炮火，我的大儿子情况已经很不好了。”马蒂尼的妻子莎拉·阿扎尔说道，她怀里抱着才一岁大、还穿着明黄色救生衣的儿子马克，“他开始口吃了。他吓坏了。”

马蒂尼很快就给土耳其安排他们上船的蛇头打了个电话，他报了一串密码，将款从第三方账户划给蛇头。这趟在合法渡轮上收费仅为17美元的旅行的要价是800到1200美元一个人。到岸后付款，所以理论上来说为了钱，蛇头也必须确保他们的客户安全抵达彼岸。

“阿布·侯赛因，”他叫的是那个蛇头的化名，“我感谢真主阿拉、先知和你！”