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WORLD NEWS Friday 27 September 2019
Surge in migration throws Greek islands back into crisis

By DEREK GATOPOULOS erything here, we have to children, and covered
Associated Press stand in line. For the show- large distances on foot.
MORIA, Greece (AP) — ers, to use the toilets, to get They cannot be massed
There’s no room left at food, I have to stand in line together on a small area of
Europe’s largest refugee for eight hours every day,” land. Winter is coming and
camp. said Heideri, a 40-year-old that always makes condi-
New arrivals on the Greek construction worker who tions worse.”
island of Lesbos have to initially fled to Iran but In response to a question
fend for themselves outside couldn’t enroll his children from the AP, European
its barbed wire perimeter in school there. Commission spokeswoman
— in a maze of tents, each “It doesn’t matter where Natasha Bertaud said the
sprayed with a number in we end up. I just want to EU would consider any re-
black paint. live somewhere legally, be quest by Athens for addi-
Afghan migrant Ismutallah safe, and see my kids go to tional support.
Heideri lives in the “800s school.” “I’m not aware of any
section,” reached by zig- The spike in arrivals has A migrant walks outside the Moria refugee camp, on the change in policy on the
zagging through washing added strain in ties be- northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, Monday, Sept. Greek side,” she said.
lines, power cords precari- tween NATO allies Greece 23, 2019. “We’ve noted with con-
ously fanning out from a and Turkey, which are al- Associated Press cern that a large number
circuit box, and children ready at odds over natu- Moutzouris, regional gov- that is proportionate to the of arrivals have been re-
playing barefoot on the ral gas drilling rights in the ernor for the North Aegean population (of Lesbos),” he ported in Lesbos over the
stony ground. eastern Mediterranean islands, told The Associated said. past week, which is un-
He has spent the last 30 and other long-standing Press. “The people who come doubtedly putting addi-
nights curled up inside a disputes. “We are asking for the here are under intense tional pressure on a system
small tent kept immacu- Lesbos, Greece’s third- evacuation of the islands strain, having crossed con- that is already under great
lately tidy with his wife, largest island, is a magnet and for a number to remain tinents, traveled with young strain.”q
4-year-old daughter, and for migrant traffickers along
two sons, who are 1 and 13. the Turkish coast who aim
“Nothing makes sense dinghies at the island’s flat
here,” he said in a voice northern coastline or at the
that shook at times. “We seafront lights of its interna-
are all suffering.” tional airport.
As Heideri reached Lesbos At the height of the crisis in
in late August, the rate of 2015, as wars raged in Syria
arrivals hit the highest level and Iraq, 211,000 made the
since a European Union 12.5- kilometer (eight-mile)
crackdown on migration crossing in a single month.
three years ago. NATO deployed ships in
Lesbos and other Greek the eastern Aegean Sea
islands facing Turkey’s the following year and the
mainland were used as a number of monthly arriv-
physical barrier to Europe’s als on Lesbos fell sharply to
mainland — set up with 3,080 by September 2016
camps, international coast and has remained fairly
guard patrols, and new re- stable since, according to
strictive travel rules. data provided by the U.N.
A year ago, Greece quietly refugee agency, UNHCR.
relaxed those rules to ease That rate jumped this sum-
severe camp overcrowd- mer, with September ar-
ing and calm tempers rivals at 7,712. Lesbos has
among islanders hurt by again become the busiest
the crisis’s impact on tour- entry point in Europe.
ism. Thousands of asylum- Afghans make up the larg-
seekers were ferried to the est group of new arrivals,
mainland where the state- followed by migrants from
run camp network was ex- Syria, Congo, and Iraq.
panded. Moria was officially closed
But conditions on the is- to new arrivals over the
lands have steadily wors- weekend, and the govern-
ened and patrols are still ment has promised it would
unable to stop migrants move thousands more to
fleeing war and poverty. the mainland and use mili-
Moria refugee camp on tary resources to support
Lesbos was built to house coast guard patrols.
3,000 people but currently But local officials are press-
hosts a record 12,000 — ing for a more ambitious
with 7,000 on the hillside shift in policy.
sprawl where pre-winter “About one in every six
conditions are becoming people on this island got
increasingly desperate. here by illegal means and
“For every meal, for ev- the situation has become
ery official paper, for ev- untenable,” Constantinos