“Excuse me, what country am I in?” a young Syrian man who just minutes earlier had come ashore on Lesvos island asked the reporters in perfect English.
The famished man, who had been travelling for days from Turkey to Greece, was only carrying a small bag and his mobile phone in a sandwich bag.
He and over 200 others who left their home in the hope of escaping civil war, had paid the smugglers thousands of euros.
Dozens of infants and young children arrived on the shores of Lesvos, cold and wet, crying for food.
Pregnant women, helped by civilians and coastguard officers, knelt and kissed the ground of this unknown country.
More than 40,000 have arrived on Greek territory this year and it’s not even the peak of the smuggling season.
Thousands of migrants from Eritrea and Syria are expected to set foot on the shores of Greece and Italy, especially after the new Migration Agenda bills that were approved last week.
Meanwhile, Greece is struggling to rise above its own crisis and is unable to support any more migrants.
Lesvos island has no available facilities to accommodate the refugees, as another 1,000 people are being kept in a detention centre.
The mayor has used community money to build a makeshift campsite, while the locals are offering the migrants blankets and food as the island’s authorities are lacking supplies.
“Now is the time for Europe to stand up and do something to help these people,” a shop owner in Lesvos said.
“People and infants are sleeping on the streets, we can’t handle this situation by ourselves.”
Source: Infomobile
