EUROPE-MIGRANTS/LESBOS ARRIVALS Syrian migrants plead for help as they arrive on Lesbos Island

Record ID: 139890

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/LESBOS ARRIVALS Syrian migrants plead for help as they arrive on Lesbos Island
  • Date: 15th September 2015
  • Summary: LESBOS ISLAND, GREECE (SEPTEMBER 14, 2015) (REUTERS) FOREIGN VOLUNTEER WAVING LIFE JACKET IN THE AIR TO INDICATE ARRIVAL POINT FOR DINGHY FULL OF SYRIAN REFUGEES DINGHY OVERLOADED WITH SYRIAN REFUGEES APPROACHING SHORE / REFUGEES WHISTLING, CHEERING AND WAVING THEIR HANDS VARIOUS OF SYRIAN REFUGEES CLAPPING, WHISTLING AND WAVING WITH THEIR HANDS AS THEY CELEBRATE THEIR ARRIVAL ON THE SHORE MAN HOLDING LITTLE GIRL AS OTHERS DISEMBARK FROM DINGHY REFUGEES DISEMBARKING, INCLUDING WOMAN WITH CHILD PEOPLE GETTING OFF DINGHY BOAT / WOMAN HOLDING CHILD IN HER ARMS FOREIGN VOLUNTEER HOLDING CHILD STILL WEARING LIFE JACKET AND REASSURING REFUGEES / PEOPLE SMILING AND HUGGING CHILDREN WEARING LIFE JACKETS ON THE SHORE, CHILD CRYING CHILD CRYING WOMAN HOLDING HER DAUGHTER, SMILING AND WAVING HER HAND / FATHER JOINS AND KISSES DAUGHTER REFUGEES GATHERED ON THE SHORE, DOZENS OF DISCARDED LIFE JACKETS AND BUOYS ON BEACH (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE, MUSTAFA AL-KHALIL, SAYING: "We ask the world to open its eyes to the Syrian conflict. We are being oppressed and slaughtered by Bashar al-Assad, and by fundamentalist Muslims as well. We are being killed in many different ways. You either die under Assad's barrels, or by Daesh's swords, or the sea swallows you." FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS COVERING SYRIAN REFUGEE WITH THERMAL BLANKET (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE, FAIHAA, SAYING: "There is no security, no security (in Syria). I was afraid for my children. I lost my husband, I escaped with my children, I was afraid for them." FAIHAA HUGGING AND KISSING HER DAUGHTER, AND A FOREIGN VOLUNTEER REFUGEES, MANY OF THEM CARRYING BABIES, WALKING ON DIRT ROAD ALONG THE SHORE
  • Embargoed: 30th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABU6FJB4KF8RPIPH9776TMMLSQ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Syrian refugees, still wearing life jackets, arrived on the shores of Lesbos on dinghy boats on Monday (September 14) pleading with the international community to take affirmative action to help them escape from their war torn countries.
    "We ask the world to open its eyes to the Syrian conflict. We are being oppressed and slaughtered by Bashar al-Assad, and by fundamentalist Muslims as well. We are being killed in many different ways. You either die under Assad's barrels, or by Daesh's swords, or the sea swallows you," said Mustafa Al-Khalil, a Syrian refugee from Raqqa.
    Hundreds of migrants continued to arrive in Lesbos on Monday, with five small boats landing on the island in just 45 minutes. Men, women and children cheered, clapped and cried as volunteers who waited for them at shore offered them water, food, clothes and thermal blankets.
    Syrian refugee Faihaa, who fled her country with her two children, arrived in Lesbos on one of the dinghy boats on Monday, her third attempt to cross the Aegean sea between Turkey and Greece.
    "There is no security, no security (in Syria). I was afraid for my children. I lost my husband, I escaped with my children, I was afraid for them," said Faihaa, whose husband was killed in the Syrian conflict.
    The Syrian conflict has killed 250,000 people since 2011 and has forced half of the Syrian population away from their homes, creating four million refugees and displacing some 7.6 million more within the country.
    One million more people are estimated to be displaced within Syria by the end of the year if the war there continues unabated, potentially adding to the flow of refugees to Europe, a senior U.N. official said on Saturday (September 12).
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