UNHCR boosts presence in Greek islands to cope with soaring refugee arrivals

News Stories, 5 June 2015

© UNHCR/S.Baltagiannis
Lining up to board a night ferry from the Greek island of Kos to Athens. On Thursday evening, just over 300 Syrian refugees with passports boarded the night ferry to Athens where they can be registered.

GENEVA, June 5 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency on Friday said it was stepping up its field presence in the eastern Aegean islands of Greece where sea arrivals in recent weeks from Turkey have been averaging some 600 people a day, straining local reception capacities.

In the first five months of this year, more than 42,000 people arrived by sea in Greece, most of them refugees. This is six times the level of the same period last year (6,500) and almost the same as the total for all of 2014 (43,500). More than 90 per cent of the people arriving are from refugee-producing countries, principally Syria (over 60 per cent of arrivals this year), Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Eritrea.

"The refugees cross the eastern Aegean Sea from Turkey in small, flimsy boats and inflatable dinghies. They are landing in as many as 15 different Greek islands or being rescued at sea by the Greek Coastguard," UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming told journalists in Geneva. "The largest arrivals have been on Lesvos, Chios and Samos and the Dodecanese Islands, particularly Kos and Leros. Smaller numbers of refugees have also been crossing through Greece's land border with Turkey at Evros."

The large numbers of refugees arriving has led to bottlenecks, as the authorities struggle to identify, register and fingerprint them. The three existing reception facilities in Lesvos, Chios and Samos are severely overcrowded. Refugees awaiting registration, including families with children, have no choice but to sleep in the open. In addition, many refugees landing on remote beaches, including older people and small children, have to walk for miles carrying their meagre belongings because of the lack of transport.

There is no regular provision of food or drinking water to refugees, unless they are accommodated in police-run facilities for registration and processing. In some of the islands, volunteers have asked local restaurants and bakeries for food donations to distribute to the refugees who are sleeping rough or in unused buildings.

On Kos, where some 7,000 refugees have arrived so far this year, there are no official facilities for those awaiting registration, and conditions are particularly dire. Hundreds of women, children and men are sleeping in cramped and unsanitary conditions in an abandoned hotel.

Faced with a growing backlog of people waiting to register with the police and a deteriorating humanitarian situation, the authorities in Lesvos and Kos, in cooperation with the central government, have decided to allow Syrians with valid passports to board the regular passenger ferries to Athens to be registered there. Around 300 Syrians boarded the night ferries to Athens from Kos and 350 from Lesvos on Thursday.

"To respond to the critical situation in the Greek islands, UNHCR is increasing its personnel in Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos, Rhodes, Leros and Evros. Additional deployments are also being planned," Fleming said in Geneva.

UNHCR is already helping local authorities to improve reception conditions, identify additional accommodation for refugees, provide legal information and counselling to new arrivals and distribute sleeping bags and mats, soap, sanitary towels and other relief items to the most needy.

The refugee agency is requesting European Union institutions and agencies to further enhance the support provided to Greece, and for support to be given to non-governmental organizations to enable them to urgently support communities in the Greek islands and in southern Italy that are trying to deal with the challenges posed by the influx of refugees and migrants arriving irregularly by sea.

Fleming said that UNHCR estimates that as of the end of May, almost 90,000 refugees and migrants had crossed the Mediterranean in 2015. This includes some 46,500 who landed in Italy and the 42,000 in Greece. Smaller arrivals numbers have been recorded in Spain (920) and Malta (91). At the same time, 1,850 refugees or migrants have died or are missing at sea. During the same period last year, 49,000 people crossed the Mediterranean to southern Europe.

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Thousands of desperate Syrian refugees seek safety in Turkey after outbreak of fresh fighting

Renewed fighting in northern Syria since June 3 has sent a further 23,135 refugees fleeing across the border into Turkey's southern Sanliurfa province. Some 70 per cent of these are women and children, according to information received by UNHCR this week.

Most of the new arrivals are Syrians escaping fighting between rival military forces in and around the key border town of Tel Abyad, which faces Akcakale across the border. They join some 1.77 million Syrian refugees already in Turkey.

However, the influx also includes so far 2,183 Iraqis from the cities of Mosul, Ramadi and Falujjah.

According to UNHCR field staff most of the refugees are exhausted and arrive carrying just a few belongings. Some have walked for days. In recent days, people have fled directly to Akcakale to escape fighting in Tel Abyad which is currently reported to be calm.

Thousands of desperate Syrian refugees seek safety in Turkey after outbreak of fresh fighting

A Teenager in Exile

Like fathers and sons everywhere, Fewaz and Malak sometimes struggle to coexist. A new haircut and a sly cigarette are all it takes to raise tensions in the cramped apartment they currently call home. But, despite this, a powerful bond holds them together: refugees from Syria, they have been stranded for almost a year in an impoverished neighbourhood of Athens.

They fled their home with the rest of the family in the summer of 2012, after war threw their previously peaceful life into turmoil. From Turkey, they made several perilous attempts to enter Greece.

Thirteen-year-old Malak was the first to make it through the Evros border crossing. But Fewaz, his wife and their two other children were not so lucky at sea, spending their life savings on treacherous voyages on the Mediterranean only to be turned back by the Greek coastguard.

Finally, on their sixth attempt, the rest of the family crossed over at Evros. While his wife and two children travelled on to Germany, Fewaz headed to Athens to be reunited with Malak.

"When I finally saw my dad in Athens, I was so happy that words can't describe," says Malak. However, the teenager is haunted by the possibility of losing his father again. "I am afraid that if my dad is taken, what will I do without him?"

Until the family can be reunited, Malak and his father are determined to stick together. The boy is learning to get by in Greek. And Fewaz is starting to get used to his son's haircut.

A Teenager in Exile

Jihan's Story

Like millions, 34-year-old Jihan was willing to risk everything in order to escape war-torn Syria and find safety for her family. Unlike most, she is blind.

Nine months ago, she fled Damascus with her husband, Ashraf, 35, who is also losing his sight. Together with their two sons, they made their way to Turkey, boarding a boat with 40 others and setting out on the Mediterranean Sea. They hoped the journey would take eight hours. There was no guarantee they would make it alive.

After a treacherous voyage that lasted 45 hours, the family finally arrived at a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, called Milos - miles off course. Without support or assistance, they had to find their own way to Athens.

The police detained them for four days upon their arrival. They were cautioned to stay out of Athens, as well as three other Greek cities, leaving them stranded.

By now destitute and exhausted, the family were forced to split up - with Ashraf continuing the journey northwards in search of asylum and Jihan taking their two sons to Lavrion, an informal settlement about an hour's drive from the Greek capital.

Today, Jihan can only wait to be reunited with her husband, who has since been granted asylum in Denmark. The single room she shares with her two sons, Ahmed, 5, and Mohammad, 7, is tiny, and she worries about their education. Without an urgent, highly complex corneal transplant, her left eye will close forever.

"We came here for a better life and to find people who might better understand our situation," she says, sadly. "I am so upset when I see how little they do [understand]."

Jihan's Story

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