Small Greek island is migrants' gateway to Europe
The azure waters of Agathonissi are as inviting as Greece's other
Aegean Sea islands, but here a coastguard flotilla, not tourist yachts,
takes up most of the picturesque harbour.
The island off Turkey's west coast has a permanent population of
around 100 and welcomes at least double that number of tourists in the
summer.
But it is also a magnet for thousands of illegal immigrants from Asia
and Africa crossing these smuggler-infested waters that constitute the
European Union's southeastern border.
"We've been coming here for about 16 years, and every year it gets
worse," says Michael, a 60-year-old Briton preparing breakfast on board
his yacht. "It's sad but something has to be done."
Last year alone, some 5,000 migrants - 50 times the population - were
detained on Agathonissi, said local municipal councillor Stelios
Kamitsis.
An EU summit in Brussels last week pledged to address repeated calls
from Greece and the other "frontline" states of Cyprus, Malta and Italy
for help in securing maritime borders against the daily influx.
Last week, Athens' conservative government warned that immigration
was pushing the country's resources to the limit. "Given the seriousness
of the situation, a number of measures must be adopted without delay,"
Prime Miniser Costas Karamanlis urged EU leaders.
Back on the Agathonissi island pier, a patrol boat has just arrived
with a fresh load of bedraggled would-be immigrants, a group of 16 men,
three women and a baby.
"This is Greece?" gasps Osef Ahmadi, an exhausted 25-year-old
clutching a small bag of belongings. With him are his brother Ali, his
wife Leyla and their baby daughter Mariam, aged one. They claim to be
Afghan.
The small family left Afghanistan's Wardak province a month ago,
paying 14,000 dollars for passage to the Turkish coast on a truck, said
Osef.
As he speaks, the coast guards produce the slashed remains of an
inflatable dinghy on which the migrants entered Greek waters.
"We found them on the maritime border with Turkey, around three
nautical miles from the island," says Dimitris Stratis, the harbour
master of neighbouring Patmos island which has jurisdiction over the
area.
"It's the usual story, they tore the dinghy so they would be rescued
as castaways and avoid being arrested for illegal entry into Greece," he
said.
On the pier, police officers separate the men from the three women in
the group. Lacking identity papers, the men are asked to give their name
and those of their parents, their age and nationality. The women follow.
"Cheers, smile," said a policeman as he snapped their mugshots under
the blazing mid-morning sun.
Based on the migrants' statements, the final tally reads: 19 Afghans
and one Burmese, aged 15-30.
With the identification phase complete, the group are lined up and
taken to a 30-square-metre (320-square-feet) warehouse near the harbour
that will serve as their home for the coming days.
"How long will we stay here?" asks Roya Hosseini, a 28-year-old woman
accompanied by her husband Javed. She is dressed in brightly-coloured
clothes and wears no veil.
"I want to join my brother who lives in Italy, but they've taken our
cellphone SIM cards," says 19-year-old Isaha Han, who is barefoot after
losing his shoes in the boat.
The warehouse only emptied a day earlier when a group of Pakistanis
who slept inside for four days were removed and transferred to the
nearby island of Samos that has a larger migrant reception centre.
A day later, another 50 migrants fished out of the sea are brought
here.
"The state offered to build a reception centre on the island but we
refused as it's bad for tourism," said councillor Kamitsis.
"Sometimes the migrants steal our goats but that's not important -
it's the diseases we're worried about," said the councillor's wife
Chryssoula. AFP |