It's a crisis that can be told in numbers: around 890,000 refugees and migrants arrived to Europe by sea this year, while more than 3,500 have died and it's not over yet. Fleeing war, human rights abuses and persecution, refugees...

A short distance outside the village of Molyvos on the Greek Island of Lesbos there is a rubbish dump of life jackets, discarded now but forever witness to the hope and suffering of those who fled war, poverty and oppression this year.

It’s early morning, cloudy with a light breeze and we are on standby as a rescue team for any approaching refugee boats that might get into trouble. And then … we get the call! A boat has been spotted in a position east of ours.