Migrants clash with authorities on Greek island

Michel Allatuain waited beneath the 14th century fortress at the port of this Greek island on Thursday, desperate for a ferry ticket to the European mainland and a better life. Public spending throughout Greece, including on its islands, has been decimated and the basic facilities and infrastructure required to deal with such an influx no longer exist.

“We tell them that if they want to leave the island, we want it 10 times more”, said Theodossis Paraschos, one of a group of local men gathered outside the old stadium advising the migrants to queue in a more orderly way. Reportedly, the migrants had to be detained because they were found to be too numerous and therefore were unmanageable.

Tensions are rising on the Greek island of Kos as police clash with crowds of migrants. “But these people are getting no support, and no information on what they need to do”.

Migrants arrive at a beach after crossing from Turkey to the southeastern Greek island of Kos, Wednesday, August 12, 2015.

Avramopoulos is expected to give a televised statement Friday in Brussels, Belgium. The footage, which appears to show the policeman roughly pushing a group of migrants crowding outside a local authority building before he slaps one man across the face, was captured by an Associated Press correspondent on Monday.

Bishop Nunzio Galantino, head of the Roman Catholic Italian Bishops’ Conference, criticized the government for not doing enough to assimilate the migrants.

More than 7, 000 immigrants have appeared on Kos and several are sleeping tough on shores or in resorts and about the roadside, however they continue to be excited to reach. “The situation is really dramatic”, he said. Another 33 were treated for heat exhaustion and loss of consciousness, with children, pregnant women and the elderly the most vulnerable.

The United Nations says the figure represents a 750% increase over the same period past year.

Kos’s mayor, Giorgos Kyritsis, who made the decision to use the stadium, denied that the ship would simply be yet another place of limbo for refugees. “We don’t have that money”.

The TurkeyovervallenGreece route has reemerged majority of these summertime as a vibrant enterprise for smugglers cashing in on the flow of people in general running attempt and adversity.

On Wednesday afternoon, after being locked inside for about 18 hours, the mostly Syrian and Afghan refugees were fainting at a rate of four each hour, aid workers said. Syrians who could afford it would fly into Tripoli, the Libyan capital, and then cross to Sicily.

The chaos is more evidence of how Greece is struggling to cope with the growing number of migrants.

Medics with charity Doctors Without Borders said they treated refugees fleeing Syria and other warzones for panic attacks after police threw stun grenades, which emit blinding flashes of light and deafening bangs, into the crowds on Wednesday.