The figure represents a staggering 750 percent increase over the same period last year, as said by figures from the United Nations’ refugee agency, the UNHCR.
Advertisement
Policemen try to disperse hundreds of migrants by spraying them with fire extinguishers, during a registration procedure which was taking place at the stadium of Kos town, on the southeastern island of Kos, Greece, Tuesday, August 11, 2015.
The dozens who arrived by boat from nearby Turkey on Wednesday morning joined thousands more who are already camping in dire conditions on the island’s public beaches and parks. A total of 98,000 have arrived in Italy. “My home was destroyed by a rocket blast”, he said, showing a picture on his mobile phone of himself in the wreckage. “From Greece, I will travel through Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary to Germany”.
The global Doctors Without Borders charity heavily criticized Greek authorities, voicing deep concern at the situation. Many women and young children are among those interned in a sunbaked waste without shade or hygiene facilities.
Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) said more than 2,000 people were forced to queue at the national stadium as police struggled to register the latest influx of people landing on their shores as they escape war-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa. “We can’t go out”. “What was previously a situation of state inaction is now one of state abuse, with police using increasing heavy-handed force against these vulnerable people”.
Advertisement
A Greek police official told Reuters that authorities were planning to position riot police squads to Kos and neighboring islands of Rhodes and Syros amid the mounting number of asylum seekers in the European country. “Now they also come during the day, in the afternoon when people are swimming”.
