EUROPE-MIGRANTS/LESBOS ARRIVALS Volunteers meet refugees arriving on Lesbos with dry clothes and food

Record ID: 141222

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/LESBOS ARRIVALS Volunteers meet refugees arriving on Lesbos with dry clothes and food
  • Date: 12th September 2015
  • Summary: NORTHERN SHORE OF LESBOS ISLAND, GREECE (SEPTEMBER 11, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF RUBBER DINGHY CARRYING MIGRANTS SEEN IN DISTANCE DINGHY WITH MIGRANTS ON BOARD WHICH HAS JUST ARRIVED ON THE SHORE SEEN FROM ABOVE MIGRANTS WALKING ALONG SHORE CHEERING AND WAVING THEIR HANDS AS THEY WALK TOWARDS ROAD SMILING MIGRANT SENDING KISSES TO THE CAMERA / ANOTHER IS POURING WATER FROM A BOTTLE ON HIS FACE VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS CLIMBING TO REACH THE MAIN ROAD FROM THE SHORE FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS IN VAN GIVING CLOTHES, WATER AND FOOD TO MIGRANTS WHO HAVE JUST ARRIVED, WOMAN IN FOREGROUND CHANGING BABY'S NAPPY BABY LYING ON FOIL BLANKET MAN DRESSING YOUNG BOY WOMAN AND MAN PUTTING NEW AND DRY CLOTHES ON THEIR CHILDREN AFTER HAVING ARRIVED ON THE SHORE CHILD'S SNEAKERS MIGRANTS GATHERED ON THE ROAD, AT A REFRESHMENT POINT ESTABLISHED BY VOLUNTEERS MIGRANTS GATHERED AROUND CAR WHERE FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS ARE HANDING OUT DRY CLOTHES AND SHOES FOREIGN VOLUNTEER PUTTING BABY IN BABY SLING SHE JUST GAVE TO HIS FATHER BABY FOREIGN VOLUNTEER GIVING SNEAKERS TO LITTLE GIRL LITTLE GIRL PUTTING ON HER NEW SNEAKERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) DANISH VOLUNTEER, ANYA GLARING, SAYING: "When you've been wet and you've been walking for a long time in 40 degrees, I think anything, an apple, a tissue just to clean your hands or your face, a diaper for a baby, I think it's absolutely important." VARIOUS OF MIGRANT WOMAN PUTTING NEW SNEAKERS ON HER BABY (SOUNDBITE) (English) DANISH VOLUNTEER, ANYA GLARING, SAYING: "We cannot not do it, it's a... it makes a lot of sense, since nobody else is doing it, and I am just so moved, and I think it's so amazing what all these volunteers have been doing, and to see these people when they come in, they are grateful, they are...You know, they are so grateful for just a little thing. You give them three and they take one, you know it's just beautiful." MIGRANTS GETTING READY TO GET INTO FOREIGN VOLUNTEER'S CAR FOR TRANSPORTATION MIGRANTS GETTING INTO CAR MIGRANT MAN, WOMAN AND TWO CHILDREN IN THE FRONT SEAT CAR LEAVING, DRIVEN BY FOREIGN VOLUNTEER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN VOLUNTEER NOW LIVING IN NORWAY, HIAM AL-CHEIROUT, SAYING: "I came here because my fellow countrymen need my help. I came with my son and two Norwegian friends to help with the situation here. There are children dying in the sea, they need our help. We came to do our duty to our country, our country which is Syria." VARIOUS OF SYRIAN REFUGEE FAIZA, FEEDING ONE OF HER FIVE CHILDREN WITH BISCUITS FAIZA'S OTHER LITTLE GIRL (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE, FAIZA, SAYING: "I am arriving exhausted and full of suffering. When someone helps you a little, you feel joy, and you feel relieved. When you arrive tired and find nothing, you suffer even more." MIGRANT WOMAN WITH CHILDREN LOOKING AT BOXES WITH DIAPERS, FOOD, AND OTHER BASIC GOODS THE VOLUNTEERS ARE GIVING OUT DIAPERS AND OTHER SANITARY ITEMS VOLUNTEERS ARE HANDING OUT (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE, FAIZA, SAYING: "I have a hope for a better life. The most important thing is that we are now far from the destruction and the chaos, especially regarding the children, their future. That is to say, I couldn't stand the idea that something might happen to my son in the street. I want to feel that my son has a future." TURKISH COAST SEEN IN DISTANCE GREEK COAST IN THE FOREGROUND, TURKISH COASTLINE IN DISTANCE
  • Embargoed: 27th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5CIOX2B8FJ9A2FDXGEJYL0G74
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Dinghies crammed with migrants fleeing war and poverty have continued to arrive on the shores of Greece's Lesbos island.
    On Friday (September 11) three rubber dinghies reached the beach of Skala Sykamnias, about 60 kilometers north of the island's capital, Mytilene, in just 45 minutes.
    After arriving on Greece's shores, the wet and tired migrants then have to embark on yet another long journey towards the island's registration centres.
    Some volunteers, many of whom are foreigners, set up a refreshment point near the shore, to offer food, water and dry clothes to those arriving.
    "When you've been wet and you've been walking for a long time in 40 degrees, I think anything, an apple, a tissue just to clean your hands or your face, a diaper for a baby, I think it's absolutely important," said Anya Glaring, a volunteer from Denmark.
    "We cannot not do it, it's a... it makes a lot of sense, since nobody else is doing it, and I am just so moved, and I think it's so amazing what all these volunteers have been doing, and to see these people when they come in, they are grateful, they are...You know, they are so grateful for just a little thing. You give them three and they take one, you know it's just beautiful," she added.
    A Syrian volunteer, now living in Norway, was also there to help.
    "I came here because my fellow countrymen need my help. I came with my son and two Norwegian friends to help with the situation here. There are children dying in the sea, they need our help. We came to do our duty to our country, our country which is Syria," said Hiam al-Cheirout.
    Debt-strapped Greece is struggling to cope with the wave of mostly Syrian refugees using Greece, Macedonia and Hungary as transit routes to wealthier northern European nations.
    Syrian refugee Faiza arrived with her husband and five children on a dinghy on the northern shore of Lesbos island on Friday.
    "I am arriving exhausted and full of suffering. When someone helps you a little, you feel joy, and you feel relieved. When you arrive tired and find nothing, you suffer even more," she said.
    She said it had been impossible for her to stay in Syria.
    "I have a hope for a better life. The most important thing is that we are now far from the destruction and the chaos, especially regarding the children, their future. That is to say, I couldn't stand the idea that something might happen to my son in the street. I want to feel that my son has a future," she said.
    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, the International Organisation for Migration said on Friday.
    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".
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