Greek police use batons against migrants on island of Kos

Greece has seen tens of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict around the world arriving on its Mediterranean islands. Authorities, locals and charity groups are struggling to provide registration, food and shelter to the new arrivals, many of whom are children.

Fights broke out during a registration procedure as more than 1,000 migrants gathered in a long, crowded queue outside a local football stadium.

Hundreds of protesting migrants demanding quick registration blocked the main coastal road in the island’s main town, staging a sit-in.

Immigrants were also heard chanting “We want papers!”

Overwhelmed police on the Greek island of Kos beat migrants with truncheons and sprayed them with fire extinguishers on Tuesday as its mayor warned the refugee crisis on the island could end in “bloodshed”. Police used batons and fire extinguishers to subdue the crowds. The vast majority then head to mainland Greece and from there, try to access more prosperous European Union countries by either walking across the Balkans from northern Greece, or sneaking onto Italy-bound ferries from the west.

Scores of migrants are standing outside the station, waiting to be documented so that they can sail on to Athens.

Last week, the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said: “The immigrant flow to Greece is beyond what our state infrastructure can handle”.

The officers arrived on the island on Monday and had interviewed around 750 migrants by late last night, a police source told Kathimerini.

The 1,417 people rescued between Friday morning and Monday morning were picked up at sea in 59 rescues off the coasts of the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Agathonisi and Kos, the coast guard said.

A young boy on the shores of Kos, shortly after arriving on the island on a dinghy (AP) The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR estimates that around 124,000 people have landed on Greek islands this year.