Greek officials begin efforts to process Syrian migrants on Kos

The island is the latest flashpoint in Europe’s migrant crisis as tempers between different nationalities flared yesterday, causing migrants to scuffle amongst each other before being beaten back by police.

Syrians fleeing from their country’s civil war are given processing priority because they have refugee status under worldwide law. One in every 122 people in the world is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum, the UN Refugee Agency reported.

Reuters reports at least one man was being kicked while lying on the ground and many others had blood on their faces.

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The station was closed due to a religious festival in Greece, but this put the migrants in worry and they began to clash.

According to the global Organisation for Migration, 2015 has recorded nearly 200,000 migrants and refugees attempting to enter Europe in small boats and dinghies.

Later, a group of Iranians tried to break the police line blocking access to the police station.

On Tuesday a crowd of migrants waiting to be registered were sprayed by police with fire extinguisher foam, causing the crowd to panic and dart through the streets.

The Greek government chartered the vessel – which belongs to a company that ships tourists, cars and trucks to the Greek islands and across the Adriatic to Italy – to take some of the pressure off Kos.

An Italian navy helicopter had spotted the boat, which was “overcrowded and starting to sink”, about 21 nautical miles off the Libyan coast, south of the Italian island of Lampedusa, a reporter with Italy RaiNews TV at rescue operation headquarters said.

“We are working with local authorities to identify a site where people could be accommodated with tents that we could provide, but first we have to convince the authorities to provide a site”, said Roberto Mignone, emergency coordinator for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Of these, about half have come to the Greek islands, with numbers surging in the summer when calmer weather makes the crossing less risky. It’s still unclear when the ship will sail for Piraeus, or whether it will be used as temporary accommodation until the migrants find other means to travel.

MSF’s Theisen said the charity’s teams have heard similar accounts from several people, some of whom have given “signs that point towards the Greek coast guard”.

The official did not know when embarkation would start.

Meanwhile, migrants kept arriving from the Turkish mainland, which lies within sight of Kos.

Later, six men, a woman and a baby from Iran arrived, some crying and almost fainting, after a 3-1/2 hour journey from Turkey.

Earlier, in the darkness well away from the shore, two migrant smuggling boats appeared to be intercepted by another vessel and their passengers taken into custody.