EUROPE-MIGRANTS/LESBOS REGISTRATION Greece steps up migrant registration on Lesbos island

Record ID: 141145

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/LESBOS REGISTRATION Greece steps up migrant registration on Lesbos island
  • Date: 12th September 2015
  • Summary: LESBOS ISLAND, GREECE (SEPTEMBER 12, 2015) (REUTERS) TARA KEPE CAMP GATES, WHERE SYRIAN REFUGEES ARE BEING REGISTERED LINE OF SYRIAN REFUGEES WAITING TO BE REGISTERED BY THE GREEK AUTHORITIES SYRIAN REFUGEES WAITING TO BE REGISTERED WITH POLICE IN THE FRONT GIRL BEHIND WIRE FENCE WAITING SYRIAN REFUGEES INCLUDING MAN HOLDING BABY BEING HELPED BY INTERPRETER INTERPRETER WRITING WOMAN HOLDING BABY GIRL HIDING HER FACE WITH HER HANDS VARIOUS OF GREEK POLICE AND INTERPRETERS REGISTERING SYRIAN REFUGEES SYRIAN REFUGEES WAITING WITH THEIR PASSPORTS IN HAND (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNNAMED SYRIAN REFUGEE WHO HAS JUST BEEN REGISTERED BY GREEK AUTHORITIES, SAYING: "We arrived, arrived today morning at 7 o'clock, at the beach. We came from Izmir by boat, ok? The journey were about one hour to the beach, after that we take bus from Islamic relief, with Islamic relief, and we came to the camp. (REPORTER ASKS: AND YOU GOT YOUR PAPERS ALREADY?) Already." SYRIAN REFUGEE HOLDING HIS FAMILY'S PASSPORTS SYRIAN REFUGEES REGISTERING WITH GREEK AUTHORITIES (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) REFUGEE FROM ALEPPO, SYRIA, AHMED MUSTAFA, SAYING: "The situation in Syria is catastrophic, the war is permanent. The two sides are killing each other and the population doesn't manage to put themselves in safety, in any place. The people don't manage to put themselves in safety, to put their children in shelter. All the people that are coming here, come with the hope of a better future for their families and children. They don't want anything else." CROWD OF SYRIAN REFUGEES WAITING TO BE REGISTERED WOMAN HOLDING BABY SYRIAN REFUGEES AT REGISTRATION CENTRE U.N. REFUGEE AGENCY STAFF EXPLAINING THE PROCEDURE TO REFUGEES (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.N. REFUGEE AGENCY EMERGENCY SERVICES WORKER, DJAMAL ZAMOUM, SAYING: "We would like to get to the situation where there would be no more than 5,000 people, I mean refugees here, in the island, and this is what the island is actually, that's the capacity of the island, I mean the absorption capacity of the island, so 5,000 should be the top. That's the reason why we are doing everything possible to process them as quickly as possible, so that they can leave the island to the mainland." SYRIAN REFUGEE MOHAMMED DEBASSE WITH HIS FAMILY ARRANGING THEIR BELONGINGS HAMMED DEBASSE'S WIFE DEBASSE ARRANGING HIS BELONGINGS IN A BACKPACK (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE FROM ALEPPO, SYRIA, MOHAMMED DEBASSE, SAYING: "There is no food, there is nothing, no food for the children, the situation in the camp is catastrophic. There is nothing at all, not even the very basic minimum." EXTERIOR OF TARA KEPE CAMP WOMAN AND CHILD WASHING AT CAMP'S WATER POINT WOMAN HOLDING BABY AT THE CAMP'S TEMPORARY TOILETS VARIOUS OF SYRIAN REFUGEES LINING TO GET THEIR PAPERS CHILDREN WAITING IN THE HEAT
  • Embargoed: 27th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA43XSS3A5XT75WHVW134XBT55
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Scores of migrants newly arrived on Lesbos island queued on Saturday (September 12) to get their temporary registration papers at a camp to keep moving northward into central Europe.
    Debt-strapped Greece is struggling to cope with a wave of mostly Syrian refugees using Greece, Macedonia and Hungary as transit routes to wealthier northern European nations, in one of the biggest migratory shifts in Europe in a century.
    More than 430,000 refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe so far in 2015, a record number that is more than double the total for the whole of last year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
    Greek authorities this week began fast-tracking refugees off its worst-hit island, Lesbos, laying on extra ferries after a sharp increase in arrivals and slow processing threatened to overwhelm the 80,000-strong local population.
    Although congestion had eased, aid agencies said arrivals on the island had not, estimating that more than 2,000 have crossed over daily this month.
    An estimated 15,000 people had been moved off Lesbos in the past four days after authorities introduced quicker processing.
    "We arrived, arrived today morning at 7 o'clock, at the beach. We came from Izmir by boat, ok? The journey were about one hour to the beach, after that we take bus from Islamic relief, with Islamic relief, and we came to the camp," said a Syrian refugee who had already received his papers.
    The United Nations refugee agency called for decent mass reception centres to be set up immediately in Greece, Italy and Hungary, on the front lines of a huge influx of refugees being received in "appalling conditions".
    "We would like to get to the situation where there would be no more than 5,000 people, I mean refugees here, in the island, and this is what the island is actually, that's the capacity of the island, I mean the absorption capacity of the island, so 5,000 should be the top. That's the reason why we are doing everything possible to process them as quickly as possible, so that they can leave the island to the mainland," said U.N. Refugee Agency emergency services worker, Djamal Zamoum.
    The conditions at the camp left a lot to be desired, said one refugee.
    "There is no food, there is nothing, no food for the children, the situation in the camp is catastrophic. There is nothing at all, not even the very basic minimum," said Aleppo refugee Mohammed Debasse, who had travelled to Lesbos with his family.
    EU diplomats are set to work through the weekend to try to settle arguments about how to tackle Europe's refugee crisis before a crunch meeting of interior ministers on Monday.
    A vessel belonging to the European Union's Frontex border agency plucked 32 people out of the sea off the Greek island of Lesbos on Saturday. A man believed to be about 20 years old was missing. The Greek coast guard said four children had also gone missing after a dinghy carrying them and other migrants sank off the island of Samos in Aegean Sea.
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