EUROPE-MIGRANTS/GREECE KOS UPDATE Volunteers help register migrants stranded on the Greek island of Kos

Record ID: 143864

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/GREECE KOS UPDATE Volunteers help register migrants stranded on the Greek island of Kos
  • Date: 12th August 2015
  • Summary: KOS, GREECE (AUGUST 11, 2015) (REUTERS) MIGRANTS GATHERED OUTSIDE POLICE STATION VARIOUS MIGRANTS GATHERED IN FRONT OF POLICE STATION MIGRANTS SLEEPING ON THE BEACH VARIOUS MIGRANTS GATHERED IN STREETS BOAT AND TENTS MIGRANTS QUEUING TO GET REGISTERED MIGRANTS GETTING REGISTERED VARIOUS OF MIGRANT WRITING IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION ON PAPER MAN WRITING AT DESK REGISTERING
  • Embargoed: 27th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADOO6ES9NW8RA03YD3UN3YMJQE
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Overwhelmed by the influx of migrants arriving ashore, police on the Greek island of Kos on Tuesday (August 11) asked migrants to form a volunteer team to help with the identification and registration of newcomers, witnesses said.
    Hundreds of migrants, having arrived on Kos by crossing the sea in rubber dinghies from Turkey in a bid to enter the European Union, are now stranded on the Greek island without water, sanitation, hotel or food. Many have fled war zones and poverty.
    According to Tima, a Syrian migrant, there was no place to stay on the island even for those who had the means to pay for a hotel.
    "I was ready to give 200 euros for a night and I didn't find, not even one hotel. So everybody, even who do have money, I'm not speaking about the people who don't have, I'm speaking about who do have money, they cannot find any hotel on this Island. So we are just staying in the street, literally, just staying in the street, without taking shower, without anything, just staying in the street," said Tima.
    Greece, which just pulled back from the brink of financial ruin by clinching a deal with its international lenders, has struggled to cope with a surge in migrants and refugees arriving on its shores this year.
    On Tuesday, TV images showed hundreds of migrants jostling with one another as they ran from huge clouds of thick white powder set off from fire extinguishers wielded by police officers who were apparently trying to disperse the crowd.
    It was not immediately clear what had sparked the violence. Once calm had returned, police ushered yet more migrants into the stadium, packing the stands, a Reuters witness said. Some migrants set up tents while police stood guard in riot gear.
    According to Tima, the local police then asked some of the migrants to help register the new arrivals.
    "The police came, and one of them told me to gather 10 volunteers and go inside the stadium and just make a new list," said Tima from the make-shift registration office.
    For some migrants, the situation on Kos is very different from what they'd expected.
    "I escaped from ISIS in Aleppo and Kobani. I came here thinking I would be in a good situation or have human rights, but I haven't seen what I was dreaming of. We go now to the streets and we are sleeping in the streets without any rights or services," said Michael, another Syrian migrant.
    The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said 124,000 had landed on Greek islands this year. Last week it called conditions for migrants on Kos and other islands "shameful", and said about 3,000 migrants and refugees were waiting to be registered by police.
    Between 100 and 500 migrants were landing in Kos every day, a Greek coast guard official told Reuters.
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