From Turkey's tourist coast migrants voyage into the night

It's after midnight on Turkey's southern Aegean coast. The lights on the Greek island of Kos shine tantalisingly on the horizon.

Suddenly, a group of migrants shouldering an inflatable dinghy surge out of the forest, rush to the shore and cram into the fragile craft on the water.

"Fast!" shouts one and they are on their way. Maybe to a new life in the European Union. Or maybe to another tragic disappointment.

The early hours are the safest time for migrants travelling from Turkey to the Greek islands just across the water, which have seen a huge influx of refugees escaping the civil war in Syria and chaos in Afghanistan since the beginning of this year.

Migrants leave Turkey from the peninsula just west of the upscale Turkish holiday resort of Bodrum, which at this time of the year is bursting with thousands of mainly well-heeled tourists.

From the beach at Fenerburnu on the Bodrum peninsula it is a tempting journey of just over five kilometres (three miles) south on the normally placid Aegean waters to Kos and the EU.

The migrants use dinghies designed for beach tourists which, despite the tempting proximity of Kos, are wholly unsuited for the trip.

- Waiting in the forest -

Initially three migrants emerge from the forest shouldering the inflatable dinghy. Several others join them at the water. The group of around a dozen migrants, all wearing life jackets, squeeze into the boat.

A young man holding the paddles wades into the water chest-deep and jumps in. The boat slowly leaves the shore, and then disappears into the night.

Ten minutes later, a second group of migrants turn up at the beach, followed by a third boat.

High above the shore, suspected smugglers coordinate crossings, guiding the migrants by pointing a laser beam.  

According to the International Organization for Migration, migrants and traffickers turned to using the flimsy craft to reach Greece after the Turkish authorities cracked down on traffickers' attempts to use large freighters to get to Italy.

Turkey blocked access to the "ghost ship" freighters, leaving thousands who had already paid traffickers to take them to Italy unable to leave.

The passage to islands like Kos was the best the traffickers could then offer them. Some 124,000 refugees and migrants landed on the Greek islands close to Turkey during the first seven months of the year -- up 750 percent from 2014, according to the UN.

- 'Waiting for God' -

As day begins to dawn, a group of three men remain stranded on the shore looking over at Kos after apparently failing to get a boat for the crossing.

"I just wait for God," said one, who like all the migrants interviewed declined to give his name.

Another group of 13 migrants -- including children -- hang around, apparently waiting for the people smugglers to organise their passage.

A 38-year-old Syrian man, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, said he was from the Syrian port city of Tartus. After the Syrian war, he first fled to Lebanon and then made his way to Turkey.

He said: "All people want life. I've seen life. This baby did not see life," pointing to his young son. Asked about the future, he replied: "I don't know, God knows."

Then then picked up his phone and could be heard remonstrating with the traffickers in Arabic: "Have you no shame? The children are lying on the street. Why don't you come soon?"

The smuggler then sent the group a taxi and they crammed into the vehicle, either to attempt the crossing from another point or wait for passage later.

Turkish officials say there are up to eight crossing points used by migrants from the Bodrum peninsula to the Greek islands.

"Most of the crossings take place when weather conditions are good, and when there is no fog," said an official, who asked not to be named, adding that every night 200 migrants cross on average.

As the migrants who failed to make that night's crossing disperse to try their luck again another day, the peninsula resumes its usual daytime tourist rhythm.

Foreign and local tourists go on their morning jog. For some life carries on as normal.