Europe

Mayor hands out aid as Kos sets up migrant centre

Huge passenger ship docks on Greek island to serve as reception centre and dormitory

Two Syrian refugees sit at the dock of the port of Kos as the passenger ship Eleftherios Venizelos backs into the quay. The vessel will house more than 2,500 migrants. Photograph: Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

Fri Aug 14 2015 - 19:37

Overcome by emotion, the mayor of Kos handed out water, milk and food to hundreds of Syrian migrants yesterday as a huge passenger ship docked on the Greek island to serve as a floating reception centre and dormitory.

Kos, within sight of Turkish shores, has found itself on the front line of Greece’s migrant crisis as new migrants arrive in rubber dinghies at the rate of hundreds a day.

"We are gathering money, despite our limited capability. There are many anonymous Kos citizens, even poor people, who help the refugees despite their nearly non-existent resources," said mayor Giorgos Kyritsis, fighting back tears.

Short of food and water, migrants have been sheltering from the intense heat in tents, cardboard boxes and a makeshift reception centre at a sports stadium, where scuffles broke out with police earlier in the week.

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Process papers

A cruise ship, the

Eleftherios Venizelos

, docked on the island on Friday to house 2,500 to 3,000 people and process their papers, but the first migrants were not due to board it until Saturday.

The white-painted ANEK Lines vessel, paid for by the Greek government, will provide assistance exclusively to Syrians. Authorities said people fleeing Syria’s civil war would be treated as refugees but those of other nationalities, including Africans, Iraqis, Pakistanis and many others, were considered migrants.

Suffering

Mohammad Alliad, an English student from

Syria

, said earlier: “We hear a ship is coming but we have no information. We don’t know when we should go and with what priority. We still wait for our papers.

“We are suffering here under the sun and sleeping in the open. . .”

He showed reporters what he said were bullet wounds on his leg from the Syrian war.

Police major general Zacharoula Tsirigoti said 1,900 Syrians would leave on Friday night on passenger ferries to Athens. But the mayor said about 800 migrants were arriving each day on Kos, one of Greece’s most popular holiday destinations. At least 4,000 are now camped out on the island.

Local businesses are suffering as many tourists choose to stay in their hotels, avoiding the streets, parks and coast where thousands of people are sleeping rough in improvised shelters strewn with rubbish. – (Reuters)

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