See How Lesbos Became a Limbo for Thousands of Migrants

  • A boat full of migrants is illuminated by the flashlights of Greek coast guards who have come to rescue them from the waters near the Greek-Turkish border. Sept. 6, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
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  • A migrant scrambles to climb back aboard a rubber dinghy full of his fellow Syrians as they try to cross from Turkey to the Greek islands on their way to claim asylum in the European Union. Sept. 6, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
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  • A boat full of migrants is illuminated by the flashlights of Greek coast guards who have come to rescue them from the waters near the Greek-Turkish border. Sept. 6, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
    3 of 21
  • A migrant scrambles to climb back aboard a rubber dinghy full of his fellow Syrians as they try to cross from Turkey to the Greek islands on their way to claim asylum in the European Union. Sept. 6, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
    4 of 21
  • A migrant scrambles to climb back aboard a rubber dinghy full of his fellow Syrians as they try to cross from Turkey to the Greek islands on their way to claim asylum in the European Union. Sept. 6, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
    5 of 21
  • A Syrian migrant comforts his child aboard a Greek coast guard vessel that has just rescued them from an overcrowded motorboat in the waters near the Greek-Turkish border. Sept. 6, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
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  • Syrian migrants scramble aboard a Greek coast guard vessel from the rubber motorboat they were using to cross from Turkey to the Greek islands. The coast guards have orders to rescue any migrant boats they find during night patrols of the Aegean Sea and bring them to Greece for processing and registration. Sept. 6, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
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  • A Syrian migrant comforts his child aboard a Greek coast guard vessel that has just rescued them from an overcrowded motorboat in the waters near the Greek-Turkish border. Sept. 6, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
    8 of 21
  • A Syrian migrant aboard a flimsy rubber motorboat hands his one-month-old baby to Greek coast guards, who have arrived to rescue the boat full of migrants from dangerous waters near the border between Greece and Turkey. Sept. 7, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
    9 of 21
  • Syrian migrants scramble aboard a Greek coast guard vessel from the rubber motorboat they were using to cross from Turkey to the Greek islands. The coast guards have orders to rescue any migrant boats they find during night patrols of the Aegean Sea and bring them to Greece for processing and registration. Sept. 7, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
    10 of 21
  • Syrian migrants scramble aboard a Greek coast guard vessel from the rubber motorboat they were using to cross from Turkey to the Greek islands. The coast guards have orders to rescue any migrant boats they find during night patrols of the Aegean Sea and bring them to Greece for processing and registration. Sept. 7, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
    11 of 21
  • Greek coast guards spot a group of migrants who have just landed on the island of Farmakonisi, a Greek naval outpost near the border with Turkey. Sept. 7, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
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  • A boat full of migrants is illuminated by the flash lights of Greek coast guards who have come to rescue them from the waters near the Greek-Turkish border. Sept. 7, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
    13 of 21
  • A boat full of migrants is illuminated by the flash lights of Greek coast guards who have come to rescue them from the waters near the Greek-Turkish border. Sept. 7, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
    14 of 21
  • A Syrian migrant passes a child onto a Greek coast vessel, which has arrived to rescue the boat full of migrants from dangerous waters near the border between Greece and Turkey. Sept. 7, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
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  • A Greek coast guard lights the way for a group of Syrian migrants as they move to the front of a Greek coastal patrol vessel after being rescued from the waters near the border between Greece and Turkey. Sept. 7, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
    16 of 21
  • Greek coast guards bring a group of Syrian migrants onto the island of Farmakonisi, a Greek naval outpost near the border with Turkey. Sept. 7, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
    17 of 21
  • Syrian migrants huddle on the pier of a Greek naval outpost on the island of Farmakonisi after Greek coast guards rescued them from the waters near the border between Greece and Turkey. Sept. 7, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
    18 of 21
  • Syrian migrants are taken to Leros, Greece at daybreak, aboard a Greek coast guard vessel after it rescued them from waters near the Greek-Turkish border. Center-left, a refugee couple from Damascus, Syria is on their honeymoon. The groom, Muhdi Salem, 29, is wearing a black shirt; and the bride, Sanaa Salem, 29, is sleeping with her head in his lap. Sept. 7, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
    19 of 21
  • Syrian migrants are taken to Greece aboard a Greek coast guard vessel after it rescued them from waters near the Greek-Turkish border. Sept. 7, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
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  • A camp full of migrants awakens in the courtyard of the Greek coast guard's station on the island of Leros, Greece, where they are waiting for the documents they will need to travel onward from to Western Europe. Sept. 5, 2015.
    Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
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By Simon Shuster

The migrants arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos are nothing if not resourceful. On the road leading to the island’s main port, they turn a traffic mirror into a spot for shaving and applying hair gel. A drinking fountain near the island’s northern coast has become a kind of oasis, with an entire camp of new arrivals gathering around it to wash and rest on their journey.

Such scenes, which TIME photographer Yuri Kozyrev captured during his visit to Lesbos in early September, show just how overwhelmed this piece of paradise has become. Its hastily constructed migrant camps were already overcrowded the day after they opened their gates last weekend. Both of them are squalid places. The only shelter they offer from the sun are tarps and tents, which also form the walls of makeshift mosques the migrants erected themselves.

At mealtime, when vans arrive with rice and bread, the crush of people reaching for the food sometimes erupts into brawling, and minor riots have become the norm on Lesbos whenever ships arrive to take migrants to the mainland. As of Sept. 8, there were 25,000 of them waiting to be ferried off the island, double the number registered a few days earlier. And every night thousands more keep arriving.

The lucky ones take just a few days to secure a ticket onto the cruise ship, the Venizelos, that transports them to the mainland about 2,500 people at a time. Aboard that ship the migrants are fed a good meal – pork-free, of course – and have a chance to rest and take in the immaculate views of the Aegean Sea. It is one of the only times along their journeys to Western Europe when they can feel respected, even pampered, as they travel. But the road from there, through the Balkans and Hungary, is much less forgiving than Greece.

Read More: Cultures Clash as Syrian Migrants Come Ashore on Greek Paradise

Read More: Tensions Flare Among Migrants as Greece Struggles to Keep Them Moving

 

Yuri Kozyrev is a TIME contract photographer represented by Noor.

Kira Pollack, who edited this photo essay, is TIME’s Director of Photography and Visual Enterprise.

Simon Shuster is a reporter for TIME magazine.

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