Smugglers Told Migrants Journey Was Safe

Survivors of a migrant boat which capsized off Greece have told Sky News that people smugglers said the crossing would be safe and take just 20 to 30 minutes.

We witnessed the dramatic rescue of the group in the Aegean Sea when their small passenger craft went down.

Rescuers from the charity MOAS pulled 17 adults - 12 men and five women - plus three children from the water.

Three young children died.

The group are now in a camp on the Greek island of Samos where they have been given food hand-outs and second-hand clothes.

Survivor Yousef Kanaan told us he had paid Syrian smugglers in Turkey €4,000 (£3,050) to get them to Greece but they had no idea just how difficult it would be.

He told us the boat was dangerous, despite the reassurances of the Turkish driver.

We filmed just after they were rescued, as Yousef, his wife Shatha, his three-year-old son Laith, and six-year-old daughter Lara were treated for hypothermia.

The survivors asked us to show them our footage of the rescue.

The 20-year-old Turkish driver of the ill-fated vessel, AK Oskart, has been arrested by Greek police and faces charges of manslaughter , people smuggling and causing a shipwreck.

He admitted never having piloted a boat before.

The group said they don't pin all the blame on the driver - he was part of it but it was the people smugglers who assured them the journey was straightforward.

Syrian doctor Alan Suleiman travelled with his sister's son, Mohammed.

He said they had lost almost everything at sea but now plan to walk across Europe.

"I want to go to Germany to complete my studies. It is good that we have arrived here with our lives," he said.

It may be a Greek island but in the middle of winter it can be cold and wet here.

In the camp, the survivors are given food and shelter but they cannot stay long and they do not want to.

They hope to get a ferry to Athens next and from there, somehow, get across Europe.

They still hope that Germany will welcome them after the Chancellor Angela Merkel said last summer that Syrian migrants would get asylum.

Onboard MOAS mother ship Responder, we saw people who had lost much from their small bags of possessions but were drying out what little they had left.

Pretty much all they have left as they start the long and exhausting trek across Europe to find a new life are the mobile phones and cash they clung on to.