“I like France a lot”, he said in broken French.
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A rather small and insignificant incident two weeks ago changed all of that. “What could be worse than the bloodshed we left behind in Syria?”
A passenger ferry that can hold 2,500 people has reached the Greek holiday island of Kos to provide temporary accommodation and act as a screening center for crowds of Syrian refugees sleeping rough after crossing from Turkey in flimsy boats. The next day, we found new pieces of evidence showing that this had not been a one-time effort but had become a daily, or rather nightly, routine.
Officials processed paperwork for the migrants before they moved off the dockside to be temporarily homed on the island while authorities decide their eventual destination.
UNHCR European Director, Vincent Cochetel, has said facilities on the Greek islands are “totally inadequate”. It was not hard to empathize with both the overwhelmed Greeks and the fleeing Syrians.
Another overcrowded boat arrives on the shore.
Dozens more migrants are massing in Bodrum, across the water in Turkey, as they prepare to make the journey.
Paul Collier, a British migration expert, pointedly summarized the current debate about migrants and refugees in Europe by stating, “The debate on migration is polarized into two positions: the heartless and the headless”. “There are people who receive free food every day”.
“We want to inform [the foreigners] that human smugglers will take their money most probably without being able to honor their pledges if they come toward Hungary”, Lazar said.
Yes, Europe should do more now to help Greece and other countries faced with huge numbers of migrants.
He said the Greek border force had told him it would only be for Syrian refugees and not for those from other countries.
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Kiritsis, the mayor, said he expected a ship to arrive from the mainland today that could be used to house and feed about 3,000 of the foreigners so they would no longer have to camp outside.
