EUROPE-MIGRANTS/GREECE LESVOS Migrants living in wretched conditions on Greek island

Record ID: 147032

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/GREECE LESVOS Migrants living in wretched conditions on Greek island
  • Date: 15th July 2015
  • Summary: LESVOS ISLAND, GREECE (JULY 15, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CITY OF MYTILINI, LESVOS ISLAND VARIOUS OF TENTS AT KARA TEPE MIGRANTS CAMP IN MYTILINI CITY, SEEN FROM DISTANCE YOUNG AFGHAN BOY LIVING AT CAMP AFGHAN MIGRANTS GATHERED IN FRONT OF AND IN THEIR TENT BANDAGES ON YOUNG AFGHAN CHILDREN'S LEGS AFGHAN BABY'S FACE COVERED IN MOSQUITO BITES GARBAGE / MIGRANTS GATHERED AT
  • Embargoed: 30th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAWPPIZ8D4QSOKVYPXLSA2VJZY
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The hundreds of migrants that are washing ashore the north Aegean Greek island of Lesvos find themselves trapped in limbo and living in increasingly squalid conditions, overwhelming the municipality's resources and stretching the migrants' patience.
    Every day, between 600 and 700 migrants, including families and small children, mainly from Syria and Afghanistan, cross the narrow border between mainland Turkey on dinghies, or are rescued by the Greek coast guards.
    An estimated 10,000 of them are now living in two detention centres near the capital city of Mytilini, which are built to host less than a thousand people.
    Three kilometres from Mytilini is the Kara Tepe migrant camp, where about 2,000 migrants are living in wretched sanitary conditions. Garbage is strewn everywhere, including the bathrooms, and the clogged toilets are overflowing with faeces.
    Mohammad, a migrant from Syria, has already sent his five children to Germany after arriving in Lesvos on July 11. The journey from Raqqa, Syria took over a month.
    The 40-year-old says he feels that the Greek authorities are not treating the migrants like human beings.
    "At least, they have to treat us like people, like human being. We need a bathroom, we need to finish our documents as soon as possible, because they know we are not going to stay in this country, we are crossing-by. We are going to Europe, where they respect us, where they treat us like a human being. Here, I don't see that, I don't see that," Mohammad told Reuters TV.
    Ahmed, a father of three, also fled Syria when Islamic State militant took over his village, and said he has faced challenges at every turn, including now in Greece.
    "We run from the death, to the death. We find death in each step in our way. We ran from the death in our country, to find death in the sea, and we ran from the death in the sea to find it here in the camp," said the 65-year-old Ahmed.
    The mayor of Lesvos says he feels abandoned by the international community. He likens the situation to a ticking time bomb, and says the island simply doesn't have the infrastructure or the funds to help.
    "In order to give you an example of how I feel, it's as if the international community, the European Union, the Red Cross, the U.N., have given me a bomb to hold in my hands, and the fuse is burning very slowly, and I am desperately crying for help to blow out the fuse, but they are waiting for the bomb to explode before coming to our aid," said mayor Spiros Galinos.
    "I am not able to give any more, I have already given enough from the municipality's coffers for hosting the refugees, but now I am simply unable. I have no funding, and the capital controls mean I can't take out any money even if I had some. So now, I am simply waving the white flag," he added.
    The International Committee of the Red Cross has announced on Wednesday (July 15) that it was setting up an emergency crew for Lesvos, and that Doctors Without Borders would follow suit.
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