A POWERFUL image of a crying father, clutching his children shortly after landing on a Greek beach has brought the world to tears.
Laith Majid is a Syrian refugee who arrived in Kos via Turkey, escaping the terror of Islamic State, after his home city of Deir ez-Zor was bombed.
Mr Majid was on the boat with his wife (an English teacher), three sons and their daughter. The family had paid more than $8000 for the two-hour trip, after crossing from the Turkish town of Bodrum.
Arriving on the Dodecanese island of Kos around 4.30am, the family were overwhelmed.
Barcelona-based photographer Daniel Etter, who captured the image, said the family had undertaken a dangerous journey to the island.
"This boat had 12 people in it, even though it was a small boat that could only fit about three to four people," Mr Etter told Spiegel Online.
"After more than two hours of driving the boat had lost air, water had leaked into it, the refugees were soaked when they arrived at the shore. They were then completely relieved to have arrived safely.
"In that moment it all came at them together, the joy of having done it; the love for their family; the grief over what had happened."
Mr Etter said he had met the family again after taking the photograph.
"I met her again in Kos. She stayed in a simple tent on the beach promenade. The daughter had a high fever after tiring journey, and her son hadn't slept. In the evening, they wanted to go on the ferry, which will serve as a kind of reception camp. Whether they will go, I don't know."
He said the family were hoping to settle in Germany once they had been processed.
Mr Etter said he has never been "so touched" by a single image before, with the tears coming again and again when looking at it afterwards. And the world agrees - with the image being shared on social media tens of thousands of times.[news]
.webp)
