Conundrum on Lesbos

Unkotare

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Aug 16, 2011
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Having taken in a wave of war refugees in 1922, the island of Lesbos has a natural sympathy for those fleeing horror in search of salvation. Most residents of the island today have family ties to this historical wave of refugees, so it is difficult to experience alarm over the current wave, which dwarfs anything seen in the last century.

A complicated situation.



The Ghosts of Refugees Past
 
Having taken in a wave of war refugees in 1922, the island of Lesbos has a natural sympathy for those fleeing horror in search of salvation. Most residents of the island today have family ties to this historical wave of refugees, so it is difficult to experience alarm over the current wave, which dwarfs anything seen in the last century.

A complicated situation.



The Ghosts of Refugees Past

... and Lesbos nest for the great legends. Lesbos create the story of really illicit love. (or a marriage of convenience?)

Director of the Hungarian Migration Aid : Zsuzsa Zsohár and the her "forbidden" syrian-love:


(Info.:Migration Aid International is a volunteer civil initiative providing live-saving emergency assistance for asylum-seekers who need it. Migration Aid )
 
The next wave of refugees waits on the island of Lesbos...

An even greater flood of refugees is building on Greek island of Lesbos
Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016 - At first they’re just an orange speck on the horizon, the life jackets of another boatload of refugees coming into view on the grey Aegean Sea. Slowly, the rubber raft bobs closer to shore, its outboard motor barely functioning. The Syrians and Afghans aboard lean forward as though sheer desire might speed their craft’s arrival on the north shore of this Greek island.
Finally, the grey dinghy and its 28 passengers land on the rocky shoreline of Lesbos, the gateway for so many desperate and dangerous journeys to Europe. A trio of impatient young men are first off the boat, then volunteer medics waiting on the coast shout for an unconscious woman lying in the middle of the raft to be handed forward. She’s quickly wrapped in a silver thermal blanket and laid down on a flat piece of land, where doctors revive her from apparent shock. She wakes up with a series of deep coughs. Next ashore are a pair of toddlers, both clad in onesies made soggy by the more than six-hour sea journey from Turkey. Then, the rest of the boat’s passengers file off. There are no cries of joy as they come ashore, just a stunned silence at what they all went through.

image.jpg

A refugee boat lands in Northern Lesbos, Greece, on Jan. 15, 2016, after making the dangerous crossing from Turkey.​

The 28 were among 1,644 people who landed Friday on this overburdened island in the eastern the Aegean Sea. As of Sunday, 18,000 had arrived on Lesbos since the start of the year, with the year’s first snow expected early this week. By comparison, just 752 people arrived here in all of January, 2015 – a year that eventually saw more than a million arrivals in Europe – suggesting the continent could be flooded by refugees this summer for a second straight year. “Already, it’s a record year. We don’t have a crystal ball, but the war in Syria is not going to end tomorrow. If anything, it’s becoming more deadly,” said Boris Cheshirkov, spokesman on Lesbos for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He said that while young men still make up the largest share of refugees, there were more women and families among this year’s arrivals so far on the island.

At least 42 people have drowned in the choppy and frigid waters of the Aegean Sea over the past two weeks, and those who arrived Friday on the north coast of Lesbos felt lucky not to have added to that grim total. “We stayed more than six hours in the sea. It was incredible. The motor stopped after five minutes … and the waves [took] us to Turkey,” said Azad Ahmad a 24-year-old law student from the Kurdish northeast of Syria. He said the Turkish coast guard pushed them back toward Greece, at one point hitting at the passengers with wood before one of the refugees – a car mechanic back in Damascus – managed to get the motor working again.

image.jpg

Azad Ahmad, left, from Northern Syria, and Ahmad Abdullah al-Bism, from Damascus, Syria, right, are photographed at Camp Apanema, an International Rescue Committee Transit camp in North Lesbos, Greece​

Mr. Ahmad said Friday was his third try to cross the Aegean in the past two weeks, but that bad weather had aborted the first two attempts. Wearing no life jacket, he said he knew “60 per cent” how to swim. He said his younger brother, Yousef, had made the same crossing in September and reached Germany with his wife and young child. But Mr. Ahmad’s own dream is to reach Norway and complete his studies. “Because [of] freedom. I feel it will be safest because it’s so far from the Middle East.”

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Having taken in a wave of war refugees in 1922, the island of Lesbos has a natural sympathy for those fleeing horror in search of salvation. Most residents of the island today have family ties to this historical wave of refugees, so it is difficult to experience alarm over the current wave, which dwarfs anything seen in the last century.

A complicated situation.



The Ghosts of Refugees Past

... and Lesbos nest for the great legends. Lesbos create the story of really illicit love. (or a marriage of convenience?)

Director of the Hungarian Migration Aid : Zsuzsa Zsohár and the her "forbidden" syrian-love:


(Info.:Migration Aid International is a volunteer civil initiative providing live-saving emergency assistance for asylum-seekers who need it. Migration Aid )

I always thought it a ghey island...
 
Clashes at Lesbos migrant camp...

Migrant crisis: Lesbos camp clashes as Greek minister visits
Tue, 26 Apr 2016 - Clashes break out between migrants and riot police at a detention centre on the Greek island of Lesbos, police say.
Images posted on social media showed burning rubbish and parts of the Moria camp being evacuated. The unrest came during a visit by the Greek migration minister and a Dutch minister. The migrants are angry about the detention conditions and an EU deal to return economic migrants to Turkey. Moria camp was visited by the Pope earlier this month.

The unaccompanied minors section of the camp was particularly affected by the unrest, AFP news agency reported. About 3,000 people are being held in Moria, waiting to hear what will happen to them. A spokesman for the UN refugee agency said the migrants were "angry and frustrated" and there had been a "surge in violence" in recent days. Moria was turned into a closed detention centre after the deportation deal was announced.

Under the EU-Turkey agreement, migrants who have arrived illegally in Greece since 20 March are to be sent back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or if their claim is rejected. For each Syrian migrant returned to Turkey, the EU is to take in another Syrian who has made a legitimate request. Earlier, 49 migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Myanmar became the third group of migrants to be returned to Turkey under the deal.

Migrant crisis: Lesbos camp clashes as Greek minister visits - BBC News
 
Having taken in a wave of war refugees in 1922, the island of Lesbos has a natural sympathy for those fleeing horror in search of salvation. Most residents of the island today have family ties to this historical wave of refugees, so it is difficult to experience alarm over the current wave, which dwarfs anything seen in the last century.

A complicated situation.



The Ghosts of Refugees Past

... and Lesbos nest for the great legends. Lesbos create the story of really illicit love. (or a marriage of convenience?)

Director of the Hungarian Migration Aid : Zsuzsa Zsohár and the her "forbidden" syrian-love:


(Info.:Migration Aid International is a volunteer civil initiative providing live-saving emergency assistance for asylum-seekers who need it. Migration Aid )

I always thought it a ghey island...

Major export is adult films.
 
Lesbos would be a great place to arm all the adults fleeing Syria, teach them how to fight, and then send them back to fix their own country. No one is going to do it for them.
 
the invader refugees will just infect Greece and the rest of Europe Mudda !!
 
Having taken in a wave of war refugees in 1922, the island of Lesbos has a natural sympathy for those fleeing horror in search of salvation. Most residents of the island today have family ties to this historical wave of refugees, so it is difficult to experience alarm over the current wave, which dwarfs anything seen in the last century.

A complicated situation.



The Ghosts of Refugees Past

... and Lesbos nest for the great legends. Lesbos create the story of really illicit love. (or a marriage of convenience?)

Director of the Hungarian Migration Aid : Zsuzsa Zsohár and the her "forbidden" syrian-love:


(Info.:Migration Aid International is a volunteer civil initiative providing live-saving emergency assistance for asylum-seekers who need it. Migration Aid )

I always thought it a ghey island...

You're right. Sappho, the anicent Greek poetess who loved women (in every way) came from Lesbos. The island was also the place Cybele, an even more ancient Mother Goddess, was worshipped.
 

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