Heart stopping moment desperate mother passes tiny one-week-old baby to rescue team as they cross Med in crowded dinghy

THIS is the dramatic moment a refugee’s baby was handed to rescuers on board a ship as rough seas threaten to send the child overboard.

The rescue operation in the Aegean Sea, near the Turkish coast, took place earlier this week after the migrants’ dinghy was found floating at sea.

Allie Chen witnessed the precarious rescue operation while working as a volunteer for the Emergency Response Centre International ().

Footage shows the child, wrapped in a blanket, being handed towards a rescuer standing on the edge of a separate boat.

Waves are causing the two boats to rock back and forth, making the transfer extremely difficult.

Fortunately, the rescuer manages to collect the child without dropping her and pull her back to safety.

Allie said a “collective gasp” went up among everyone at the scene when the handover was made.

The one-week-old baby was trying to reach Europe with her Syrian parents when the boat was located by rescuers.

Figures released yesterday show 250,000 people have attempted to reach Europe by boat this year.

Allie wrote: “You’ll see in the video that there was a moment where we could have lost her, and had there been audio, you would have heard a collective gasp from all the ships around, all eyes on this one child, just one week old.”

She added that rough weather on the day had created “dangerous conditions” for those trying to cross.

“It is devastating to see people still going through this perilous journey, putting their lives in direct risk in hope of a safer tomorrow.

“ERCI remains on the island of Lesbos, Greece, making sure that these few hundreds of refugees who make the dangerous crossing from Turkey to Europe reach safe on the other side.”

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