WALDOBORO, Maine — The United Nations has called 2014 the deadliest year for Syrian refugees fleeing that country’s raging civil war by sea. In July, the tally was just fewer than 800 dead.
But because of the quick response of the M/V Liberty Grace, under the command of Waldoboro resident and merchant mariner Michael Tolley, 236 Syrian refugees will not be added to that number.
On Nov. 17, Tolley and the crew of M/V Liberty Grace rescued the refugees who had been stranded at sea for almost a week and provided them with food, water, medical attention and safe passage to shore.
Syria’s civil war has been labeled “the worst humanitarian crisis of the century” by the United Nations. In three years, Syria has seen one of the worst chemical weapons attacks in history, more than $31 billion in damage to its infrastructure and more than half its population of 17.9 million people displaced.
The U.N. reported in August that the death toll from the war exceeded 191,000. There is no official statistic for the number of Syrian refugees who died after fleeing the country en route to a better life.
Tolley is no stranger to international conflicts. The 1993 graduate of Maine Maritime Academy has worked as a master mariner with the Merchant Marine since 2000, delivering food aid to some of the most troubled regions of the world.
While working as captain aboard the M/V Harriett in 2009, he narrowly escaped attack by Somali pirates off the coast of Kenya. It was the first attempt by Somali pirates to attack a U.S.-flagged ship. Because of Tolley’s guidance and direction, it failed.
Tolley is now the captain of M/V Liberty Grace, a 623-foot bulk carrier owned by Liberty Maritime Corp. M/V Liberty Grace is capable of holding up to 50,000 metric tons of wheat, corn, rice or other grains, which it delivers to countries throughout Africa and Asia.
In the past year alone, M/V Liberty Grace has delivered food aid to Afghanistan, South Sudan, the Darfur region, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Syrian refugee camps in Jordan.
When Tolley is not navigating international waters to deliver desperately needed aid to war-torn countries, he is at home in Waldoboro with his wife and three children.
War in Syria
The Syrian civil war began as a pro-democracy movement in March 2011. Inspired by the Arab Spring, the wave of uprisings in the Arab world in 2010 and 2011 against repressive dictatorships, protesters took to the streets in Syria to demand the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, whose family has been in power since the 1970s.
Peaceful protests were brutally repressed, al-Assad’s opponents took up arms and the conflict quickly escalated. The U.S. and Europe expressed support and provided limited aid to the Syrian rebels who formed the Free Syrian Army, a fragile coalition of militant groups fighting against al-Assad. However, Russia and China vetoed any effort by the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on al-Assad or prompt him to relinquish his position so Syria could transition to a democratic government.
A report published by the Institute for the Study of War warned in 2012 that Islamic extremists were gaining prominence in the Free Syrian Army because of the lack of outside support. In 2013, the former leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, capitalized on the chaos, consolidated forces and captured large swaths of territory in northern and eastern Syria under the name Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or the Islamic State.
From its base in Syria, the Islamic State launched an offensive against Iraq in June and is making a move for Baghdad. In Syria alone, 3.2 million people have fled the region to escape the violence.
On Nov. 17, Michael Tolley met 236 of them.
The rescue
According to a report written by Tolley, the M/V Liberty Grace was headed for Galveston, Texas, from the Suez Canal when it was notified by the Italian coast guard of a fishing trawler adrift 120 nautical miles southeast of Sicily. That fishing trawler contained 168 men, 28 women and 40 children, some infants, who had been stranded at sea for over a week.
The severely dehydrated, malnourished, exhausted and ill individuals that Tolley found at sea were, at one time, members of Syria’s middle class.
“Our impression was that if we had met these people under any other circumstance, they could have been our neighbors,” Tolley told The Lincoln County News in an email.
Well-educated and with professional backgrounds, they paid smugglers in Turkey $3,000 to $6,000 to secure their passage to France. They departed Turkey on Nov. 9. However, once at sea, the smugglers abandoned them.
They were set on a course to Italy while the captain and crew of the trawler returned to Turkey on speedboats. Several passengers reported they had not eaten for five days.
At 9:10 a.m. Nov. 17, the M/V Liberty Grace was by their side. Once the refugees were on board, Tolley’s 20-member crew scrambled to provide food, water, clothing, blankets and medical attention to the Syrian refugees.
Tolley said one of his guests, Yehya Bkdaleya, previously lived in Florida and became his right-hand man in organizing the refugees aboard the ship.
Another Syrian refugee was a surgeon and helped Tolley tend to those suffering from high fevers. Water hoses were run on deck to fill and refill the water bottles that had been distributed. Soap and shampoo were handed out. Women and children were given the empty rooms. And 50 pounds of spaghetti, 80 pounds of ground beef, 45 pounds of chicken and gallons of soup were prepared for dinner.
Tolley recounted how he was about to tell a family from Homs, one of the most battered cities in Syria’s civil war, that there were no more private rooms and they would need to sleep on deck.
“I started to say that I am completely out of rooms,” Tolley said, “and I glanced at their children, and, for a moment, I saw my own children.”
Morhave and Rouba and their daughters, Besmella and Messa, were given Tolley’s room for the night.
On Nov. 18, after a breakfast of 720 eggs, 80 loaves of bread, oatmeal, cereal and milk, the Liberty Grace arrived at the Grace to Porto Empedocle in Sicily. The Italian coast guard helped ferry Tolley’s guests to shore, where they were greeted by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the Red Cross and medical volunteers.
Despite leaving nearly all their possessions behind, many of the Syrian refugees tried to offer gifts to the crew of Liberty Grace. Those crew members now know the Arabic word for thank you — shoukran — because it was said to them so many times.
“We aboard have all been affected by this gift that the Liberty Grace was given,” Tolley said.
He recounted how a crew member’s eyes were opened and the stereotypical image of Middle Eastern Muslims was shattered by spending time with the refugees.
“Having spent a day and a half with these people sharing our home, you soon realize that these people are us,” he said.
Tolley’s aid to the Syrian refugees did not end Nov. 18. Inspired by the people he met, Tolley plans to contact Maine’s senators when he returns to encourage them to address the humanitarian crisis created by Syria’s civil war.
“I believe there are no accidents and that we (the officers and crew of the Grace) are truly the lucky ones to have come across these wonderful people,” he said. “Now I believe we have a responsibility to help our friends we left behind in Sicily.”