The Tiny Greek Island at the Center of the Refugee Crisis
The Tiny Greek Island at the Center of the Refugee Crisis
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A dinghy overcrowded with Afghan migrants arrives on the Greek island of Kos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, on May 27, 2015.Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty Images
Greece has long been a major entry point to Europe for migrants and refugees in search of something better. Thousands of them have in recent months landed on the island of Kos, a paradisiacal vacation spot less than three miles from Turkey’s southwestern coast.
In late May, the International Organization for Migration said more than 37,000 people have arrived in Greece this year, up from 34,000 throughout 2014. Fleeing conflict or conscription, disaster or economic hardship, many face smugglers or scams before boarding inflatable boats across uneasy waters in bids for asylum or opportunity.
The route across the Aegean Sea from Turkey has proven far less deadly than the treacherous one from Libya to Italy or Malta, where some 1,800 people have died this year. In an effort to ease the burden on the European Union’s southernmost states, including debt-stricken Greece, since most are allowed to remain in the country where they enter, the bloc is working on a way to divide the responsibility. But one thing is certain as summer deepens: warmer weather will bring more crossings.
A dinghy overcrowded with Afghan migrants arrives on the Greek island of Kos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, on May 27, 2015.Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty ImagesAfghan migrants arrive on the Greek island of Kos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, on May 27, 2015. Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty ImagesAn Afghan migrant girl holds the hand of a woman as they arrive on the Greek island of Kos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, on May 27, 2015. Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty ImagesA Syrian refugee prays on the beach after arriving on the Greek island of Kos, via a dinghy boat over part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece, on May 26, 2015. Yannis Behrakis—ReutersHundreds of newly arrived migrants walk toward a temporary shelter after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece, on May 26, 2015. Yannis Behrakis—ReutersAn Afghan migrant family poses next to a deserted hotel, where hundreds of migrants have found temporary shelter, on the Greek island of Kos on May 27, 2015. Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty ImagesAfghan migrants wash next to a deserted hotel, where hundreds of migrants have found temporary shelter, on the Greek island of Kos on May 27, 2015. Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty ImagesA migrant man from Bangladesh brushes his hair in a broken mirror in an abandoned hotel, acting as a temporary shelter, on the Greek island of Kos on May 29, 2015.Dan Kitwood—Getty ImagesA mother sits with her two young sons as they get ready to sleep in the corridor of an abandoned hotel that many migrants are using as a temporary shelter on the Greek island of Kos on May 30, 2015.Dan Kitwood—Getty ImagesMigrants gather outside the police station on the Greek island of Kos to collect documentation to facilitate their onward journey into Europe on June 1, 2015.Dan Kitwood—Getty ImagesAn Afghan woman sits with her child at a dock at the port of the Greek island of Kos on May 27, 2015. Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty ImagesLife vests and a deflated dinghy are seen on a beach on the Greek island of Kos, following the arrival of Afghan immigrants, on May 30, 2015.Yannis Behrakis—Reuters
