Exhausted but delighted: more migrants wash up in Kos

The French-based NGO Medicine Sans Frontieres (MSF) has criticised the lack of coordination and the conditions the migrants have to endure, as only a little food and water is being provided by Greek authorities in Kos.

The Greek government has been warned that the plague of migrants can’t go on for ever, as tensions between the British and the locals inevitably boil over into drunken fights outside nightclubs.

Chartered by the Greek government, the ship will provide accommodation for around 2,500 Syrians in its cabins. Picture: Milos Bicanski/Getty Images.

Of those already on the continent, 160,000 have gone to Greece, where clashes erupted recently on the island of Kos.

According to the report, the attack took place a few days ago after the boat carrying around 50 Syrian migrants set off from the Turkish coast of Izmir, but was intercepted before reaching its destination in the Greek islands of Kos and Lesbos.

Syrians are given processing priority because they are classified as war refugees in global law.

Sirus, one of the volunteers, is a sailor who lives and works on boats all year round with his wife. The majority of those who arrived last week were from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Many of Kos locals have offered food, water and washing facilities. The skirmishes were contained by police officers wielding batons and fire extinguishers. Picture: Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images.

Compared with other routes for migrants crossing the Mediterranean, where more than 2,000 people have died this year, it is a relatively first-class ride. There they wait to be taken to a remote beach before they are packed into tiny dinghies for the short crossing across a waterway also plied by giant oil tankers, tourist pleasure cruisers and coast guards.

“This is a tragedy that highlights the need for better family reunification processes”.

Greece must show “much more leadership” to tackle an escalating crisis in which 160,000 refugees and migrants have reached its shores so far this year, the United Nations said on Tuesday. People have been desperate to get out of their countries because of war and they just want to look after their families. While around 1000 people a day typically try to cross, it’s estimated this has increased to around 1500 as the August 31 deadline for the fence nears.

Until recently, most migrants making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe travelled to Italy, but dangers and logistical difficulties have in recent months shifted the flood increasingly towards Greece.

“We are not afraid”.

“They have got nothing for the babies”, said the 46-year-old. The number of those who have entered the country by land through the border with Turkey is estimated at over 1,700.

The number of people trying to reach Europe by sea is on track to hit a record this year, according to Geneva’s worldwide Organization for Migration.