In 2015, nearly half a million Syrians attempted the crossing in the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece.
Among them were Noura Shikhany and her family, who were rescued from a wooden boat on a cold night in January 2016.
Since the conflict in Syria started 5 years ago, an estimated 11 million Syrians have left their homes.
Less than 700,000 of them have found shelter in Europe.
For the majority, reaching Europe has meant having to cross the sea in desperate, unfavourable conditions.
Leaving Home
Noura Shikhany had a happy childhood growing up with her twin brother, Basel, and her parents Hassan and Faten, in Moadamiah, a town in the countryside suburbs of Damascus.
From her new house in Saarbrücken, a town in West Germany, the 27-year-old English teacher recalls the ordeal of having to leave her whole life behind.
Noura arrived in Germany in February 2016, having survived the sea crossing from Turkey to Greece along with her 64-year-old father, her 56-year-old mother and her sister in law, Zanzon.
The Rescue
It was the middle of the night when the MOAS photographer Jason – who was on assignment with the search-and-rescue ship Responder – received a text message from Sky News correspondent Mark Stone. Basel, who he had met and interviewed a few months earlier in Germany, had contacted him. He was desperately trying to find a way to help his family adrift in the Aegean Sea.
He explained to Mark that his twin sister Noura, his parents and his fiancé had left the Turkish shore that evening and that he had since lost contact with them.
At that same moment, the MOAS Responder was patrolling the seas off the coast of the Greek island of Nera when the crew spotted three men in the water, crying for help.
A New Life