A big thank you must go to all the coast guards, fishermen, NGOs, volunteers who are selflessly trawling the Aegean, rescuing hundreds from a watery grave. This video by Giorgos Moutafis shows just a fraction of what these angels of mercy are doing daily.
The Greek islands nearest Turkey are the main port of entry for over 800,000 of the million refugees who entered Europe in 2015 alone, which averages to over 2,000 a day. This in a Greece suffering its own humanitarian crisis, six painful years of recession, enormous debt, over one and a half million unemployed, 350,000 of its brightest themselves migrants, tens of thousands of homeless.
Please bear this in mind next time you read stories criticising poor conditions and lack of facilities. Greece's resources are strained to breaking point. Yet unlike certain other countries, Greece did not put up razor wire fences on its shores to keep them out. Nor can we stand by and watch these people drown. Residents of these islands, such as baker Dionysis Arvanitakis, who remembers his own time as a migrant to Australia, are sharing what they can.
Bravo to all of them.
The Greek islands nearest Turkey are the main port of entry for over 800,000 of the million refugees who entered Europe in 2015 alone, which averages to over 2,000 a day. This in a Greece suffering its own humanitarian crisis, six painful years of recession, enormous debt, over one and a half million unemployed, 350,000 of its brightest themselves migrants, tens of thousands of homeless.
Please bear this in mind next time you read stories criticising poor conditions and lack of facilities. Greece's resources are strained to breaking point. Yet unlike certain other countries, Greece did not put up razor wire fences on its shores to keep them out. Nor can we stand by and watch these people drown. Residents of these islands, such as baker Dionysis Arvanitakis, who remembers his own time as a migrant to Australia, are sharing what they can.
Bravo to all of them.
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