Everything is lost" - BBC News correspondent Fergal Keane meets migrants on refugee ship
Man on board El Venizelos
The El Venizelos once carried tourists on the leisure routes of the Aegean and the Mediterranean. That was before the wars in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan sent tens of thousands of people in the direction of Europe.
I am on board the Venizelos with 2,500 refugees. They include many families with young children who crossed from Turkey in rubber boats and spent several days queuing for the ship in the stifling heat.
It was the quiet of the waiting crowds this morning that was most striking. They filed aboard in orderly lines - the sick and the elderly going first - and then lay down wherever they could. Many were asleep within minutes.
As the dawn came up, scattered groups had gathered along the ship's railing. I met an artist from Aleppo, Givara Hesoo, who was heading for Germany with his wife and three children.
"Everything is lost," he said. When I asked him about his family's future he replied: "We cannot talk of a future yet.