Tear gas used on migrants in Kos

Chris Buckler reports from Kos.

Greece has grow to be the primary gateway to Europe for tens of hundreds of refugees and financial migrants, primarily Syrians fleeing warfare, as preventing in Libya has made the choice route from north Africa to Italy more and more harmful. Huge backlogs caused by the sheer number of arrivals and lack of official preparedness have trapped thousands on Kos, waiting for the papers that will secure them a berth on an Athens-bound ferry.

The island’s Mayor warned the situation as getting out of control and warned there was a “real danger of bloodshed”.

Greek police are under the global justice scope after a simple rounding up of illegal migrants, mostly Middle Eastern refugees, transformed into a act against human rights.

As a result the holiday island, which has a population of 30,000 people, is overwhelmed with migrants and refugees to accommodate and house.

“We are told Europe will welcome us, but the door is closed in our face”, said Abdul, 23, from Damascus.

“There has been a calamitous increase, and we do not have the resources to meet their needs”, the officer said, declining to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media. “People are starting to act mad”. The local coast guard rescued 329 migrants in seven separate incidents on Monday.

The workplace on Kos for Docs With out Borders, the medical charity, strongly deplored the circumstances within the stadium, the place most refugees have been despatched after being evicted from makeshift camps throughout the city.

“Seventy percent of our local economy is based on tourism – a five-and-a-half-month season”, said Kos taxi driver Yiannis Kefalianos. Reportedly, the migrants had to be detained because they were found to be too numerous and therefore were unmanageable. “They feel sorry for them, of course, but they shouldn’t be out there in tents in the harbor or the parks”.

The mayor of Kos, George Hazimarkos admitted: “Any and every semblance of public order has evaporated”. But there is nowhere the migrants can go while they wait for their papers, other than the sunbaked stadium.

Migrants queue outside the the Municipal Stadium.

The couple fed the migrants what they had on the boat, “water, biscuits, crackers bread…”, Dazzi said, until Greek people arrived as the sun rose, bringing “grapes, figs…”

He said the three-hour crossing from Turkey was his third attempt to reach Greece in four days.

On his first day in Kos, he was evicted from a supermarket where he tried to buy food.