Migrant Misery: Greek Island of Kos Makes Refugees Fend for Themselves

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/kos-refugees-receive-little-help-and-no-shelter-a-1048190.html



Up to 600 people arrive each night on the Greek island of Kos, fleeing wars, oppression and hunger. When they arrive, they are often made to sleep outside with not sanitation facilities available. Greek authorities seem uninterested in improving the situation.

Migrant Misery: Greek Island of Kos Makes Refugees Fend for Themselves
By Raniah Salloum in Kos, Greece
August 14, 2015 – 04:27 PM

Along the beach promenade on the island of Kos, a small settlement of tents has sprung up. Colorful clothing flaps in the breeze, hanging from a palm tree after having been washed in the sea. In the shade beneath the tree sits a 14-person family from the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo. Children, the 65-year-old grandmother, the pregnant aunt: They're all there.

The women don't want to give their names or be photographed. But they do have something they want to share. "Will you just look at that!" says the grandmother, pointing to the broad, black overcoat that covers her body. It is covered in light-colored dust -- the product of having to spend the night outside, sleeping on a patch of dried-out grass.

The family's home back in Aleppo was destroyed just a few days ago after fighting in their neighborhood flared up again. Now, they are camped under a palm tree on a Greek vacation island with nothing to eat or drink. There is no toilet nearby, much less bathing facilities.

The grandmother once again points accusingly at the spot on her overcoat. Up until 10 hours ago, before her first night under the stars on the island of Kos, she was a proud woman. After leaving Aleppo with her children and grandchildren, she found hotel rooms in Turkey for the family and paid traffickers for the trip across the small strip of the Aegean Sea that separates Turkey's west coast from Greece's easternmost islands. Once they arrived, the family did what they could to find a hotel room on Kos, but nobody wanted to rent a room to them.

[potone]

1. This is a very biased article.

It's not surprising, given the source. It is not that the people of Kos don't care, they are simply overwhelmed. They don't have the resources to deal with the constant arrival of new migrants, most of whom are refugees from Syria and Iraq. The national government does not have the resources to deal with the crisis, and northern Europe chooses to view it as a southern European problem.