‘We all deserve to live', Syrian refugees say in Greece
The man in a red and white checked shirt gingerly waded through the water holding an infant. Seconds after shrugging off a life jacket, Syrian refugee Mustafa Mohammad embraced the first person he met in Greece. A two-hour sea journey from the western shores of Turkey, this bamboo-fringed coastline on the northern Greek island of Lesbos has become the main gateway into the European Union for refugees fleeing conflict in Syria and the wider Middle East.
Others on the inflatable white dinghy whooped and cheered as they hit land. Two men alighted and knelt on the pebble beach, their foreheads touching the stones in prayer. A woman wearing a hijab picked up a pebble and hurled it into the sea.
Within one hour on Thursday, Reuters journalists on the island saw two boatloads of refugees landing on the Greek territory, one carrying roughly 40 Syrians, the other the same number of Afghans. They are among the tens of thousands who have entered Greece illegally since the beginning of the year, representing what the European Union has described as one of the biggest humanitarian crises since World War Two.
"I don't care where I go, I'm just so glad to be out of Syria. We all deserve to live," said a 26-year-old man, travelling with his younger sister. A barber by profession, he would only give his first name, Issa. "My parents are still in Homs," he said, a war-ravaged Syrian city which has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the in that country's conflict.
The U.N refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that Greece has received more than 107,000 refugees and migrants this year, more than double its 43,500 intake of 2014. From several accounts of people now in reception centres on the island waiting for papers to move to other European countries, dinghies are the primary means of transport across a sea strait about 20 km between Turkey and Lesbos.
Observers say the flow of refugees reaches on average 250 daily. Some make their way to volunteers who make arrangements for them to be fed, and buses to reach the main city of the island, Mitilini, where they are taken to reception centres for identification. Others walk. Not knowing where they are going, the boatpeople take to the dusty road to reach the nearest community about 10 km away.
Mustafa Mohammad is still elated, but looks confused. "Where do I go now?" he asked, before following the rest of the refugees kicking up dust as they walked up a mountain.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Friday that the country's infrastructure cannot handle the thousands of migrants landing on its shores from places like war-torn Syria and Afghanistan and needs European Union help. "Now is the time to see if the EU is the EU of solidarity or an EU that has everyone trying to protect their borders," he said after a meeting with ministers dealing with the influx. The United Nations refugee agency earlier called on Greece to take control of the "total chaos" on Mediterranean islands, where thousands of migrants have landed. European Union member states must also do more to share the burden of Greece, where 50,000 people arrived in July alone, said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR director for Europe, after visiting the Greek islands of Lesbos, Kos and Chios.
"The immigrant flow to Greece is beyond of what our state infrastructure can handle," Tsipras said. "We have significant problems to face it and that's why we have asked help from EU." Greece, along with Italy, has been on front line of a huge wave of migrants seeking safety and a better future in Europe. But Greece's economy is falling into recession again after having only just recovered from six years of depression brought on by its debt crisis.
The European Union has sought to share the burden of the refugees across it countries, but the response has been mixed. Britain has said it will not participate, but is currently struggling with its own crisis as thousands of migrants seek to enter via the Channel Tunnel. Hungary is also preparing to build a fence along its border, where migrants from the east seek to enter. Hopes were fading, meanwhile, of finding more survivors from a shipwreck in which 200 migrants are feared drowned near Sicily.
Others on the inflatable white dinghy whooped and cheered as they hit land. Two men alighted and knelt on the pebble beach, their foreheads touching the stones in prayer. A woman wearing a hijab picked up a pebble and hurled it into the sea.
Within one hour on Thursday, Reuters journalists on the island saw two boatloads of refugees landing on the Greek territory, one carrying roughly 40 Syrians, the other the same number of Afghans. They are among the tens of thousands who have entered Greece illegally since the beginning of the year, representing what the European Union has described as one of the biggest humanitarian crises since World War Two.
"I don't care where I go, I'm just so glad to be out of Syria. We all deserve to live," said a 26-year-old man, travelling with his younger sister. A barber by profession, he would only give his first name, Issa. "My parents are still in Homs," he said, a war-ravaged Syrian city which has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the in that country's conflict.
The U.N refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that Greece has received more than 107,000 refugees and migrants this year, more than double its 43,500 intake of 2014. From several accounts of people now in reception centres on the island waiting for papers to move to other European countries, dinghies are the primary means of transport across a sea strait about 20 km between Turkey and Lesbos.
Observers say the flow of refugees reaches on average 250 daily. Some make their way to volunteers who make arrangements for them to be fed, and buses to reach the main city of the island, Mitilini, where they are taken to reception centres for identification. Others walk. Not knowing where they are going, the boatpeople take to the dusty road to reach the nearest community about 10 km away.
Mustafa Mohammad is still elated, but looks confused. "Where do I go now?" he asked, before following the rest of the refugees kicking up dust as they walked up a mountain.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Friday that the country's infrastructure cannot handle the thousands of migrants landing on its shores from places like war-torn Syria and Afghanistan and needs European Union help. "Now is the time to see if the EU is the EU of solidarity or an EU that has everyone trying to protect their borders," he said after a meeting with ministers dealing with the influx. The United Nations refugee agency earlier called on Greece to take control of the "total chaos" on Mediterranean islands, where thousands of migrants have landed. European Union member states must also do more to share the burden of Greece, where 50,000 people arrived in July alone, said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR director for Europe, after visiting the Greek islands of Lesbos, Kos and Chios.
"The immigrant flow to Greece is beyond of what our state infrastructure can handle," Tsipras said. "We have significant problems to face it and that's why we have asked help from EU." Greece, along with Italy, has been on front line of a huge wave of migrants seeking safety and a better future in Europe. But Greece's economy is falling into recession again after having only just recovered from six years of depression brought on by its debt crisis.
The European Union has sought to share the burden of the refugees across it countries, but the response has been mixed. Britain has said it will not participate, but is currently struggling with its own crisis as thousands of migrants seek to enter via the Channel Tunnel. Hungary is also preparing to build a fence along its border, where migrants from the east seek to enter. Hopes were fading, meanwhile, of finding more survivors from a shipwreck in which 200 migrants are feared drowned near Sicily.
Last Update: August 07, 2015 21:33