MSF is now providing medical assistance at the Captain Elias hotel, a disused, dilapidated building without electricity, where hundreds of refugees are seeking shelter, for on average 10 to 15 days before being registered by the Greek police and receiving the paper authorizing them to move on from the island – most without being properly informed on the process itself.
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Authorities attempt to restore order among groups of migrants who have started fighting after arriving in the Greek Island of Kos.
The Italians fed the migrants what they had on their boat – water, biscuits, crackers and bread – until Greek people came to help in the morning and brought more food.
From Greece most of the migrants and refugees trek through the Balkans, hoping to reach wealthier northern European countries such as Britain, Germany and Scandinavia.
It also claims police have also been evicting migrants from public areas in Kos, even stopping them from sitting on park benches.
Clashes broke out yesterday when authorities tried to relocate hundreds of migrants to a football stadium for registration.
“Many of these people have spent a month or two in Turkey, living in camps there, to try to make it to Europe”, said Rayner.
Within the Psalidi space east of Kos city, newly-arrived Syrians’ first query was the place that they had landed – which provoked robust laughter as Kos has an obscene which means in Arabic.
Despite the warmth of ordinary islanders, Dazzi’s story emerged as police on Kos on Tuesday beat migrants with truncheons and sprayed them with fire extinguishers as its mayor, Giorgos Kiritsis, warned of a “bloodbath” if the migrant crisis gets worse. Over 30 of the passengers were women, but there were no children, the agency said. However, the number of migrants have recently become overwhelming. “My residence was destroyed by a rocket blast”, he stated, displaying an image on his cell phone of himself within the wreckage.
“I feel good to be here, but I still miss my family” in Syria, said Omar Mohammad, a 25-year-old English literature graduate from Aleppo. You could tell by the voices that many of them were children.
“MSF is very anxious about how the situation is evolving in Kos”, MSF Director of Operations Brice de le Vingne said in a written statement.
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Several of the refugees said their boat had been stopped by armed Greek coastguard officers who ordered them to dump fuel, stranding them at sea.
