fb-pixelGreek city is offered aid to cope with immigrants - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Greek city is offered aid to cope with immigrants

KOS, Greece — Locked in a sun-baked football stadium without food, drinking water, or sanitation, about 1,000 refugees queued for hours Wednesday to register with Greek authorities on the island of Kos, which is now at the forefront of a humanitarian crisis sweeping the country.

After sending police reinforcements, the financially strapped government promised to charter a commercial ship to house up to 2,500 immigrants on the island, where authorities have been overwhelmed by a spike in arrivals.

Alekos Flambouraris, an aide to the prime minister, said the ship would be used for shelter and to check documents.

The order to charter the ship was given after violence broke out in front of a police station on the holiday island, where migrants were lining up to receive temporary residence documents. A football stadium is being used to provide shelter for about 1,000 people.

Advertisement



Greece has become the main gateway to Europe for tens of thousands of refugees and economic migrants, mainly Syrians fleeing war, as fighting in Libya has made the route from north Africa to Italy increasingly dangerous. Nearly 130,000 people have arrived since January on the eastern Aegean Sea islands from Turkey.

Tourism-reliant Kos, which received 7,000 migrants last month and has seen tourist arrivals drop by 7 percent this year, is a study in contrasts.

Boatloads of refugees arrive at dawn, while the last revelers straggle out of night clubs and joggers run along the seafront. Mega yachts anchor just off the detention center, refugees sleep on bicycle lanes, and bikini-clad visitors stroll along next to a man in a traditional Iraqi dress.