Then just before sunrise, the moment arrives. Emerging from the dunes, a group half-walk, half-run towards the sea. The women and children head straight for the shoreline as the men begin building a large black rubber boat that will hopefully carry them across the water. As the sun rises, they gather the boat and raise it above their heads. They then start desperately trying to start the engine. For 20 minutes, the team fiddles with the outboard motor, trying to get it to start. As they struggle to do so, two policemen drop down to the beach to watch what’s going on. It’s a sight they’ve seen quite often in the past and, usually, the engine won’t start. As they watch, more police begin to arrive and it quickly becomes clear that another boat, a short distance from the beach, is also trying to launch. This group has inflated their boat on the sand dunes and is now taking it straight to shore.
