Huge influx of migrants forces Greek government to arrange for a cruise liner to serve as registration centre

More than 2,000 migrants, mainly Syrians, who arrived on the Greek island of Kos have been confined inside an old stadium for more than a day with limited access to water. The Greek government has arranged for a cruise ship that can accommodate 2,500 people to serve as a floating registration centre. The ship is expected to speed up the registration process of about 7,000 refugees who are stranded on the Kos island.

The sudden influx of a huge number of refugees is due to the Turkish measures against the traffickers who transport migrants. To stop traffickers from acquiring abandoned metal freighters for transporting migrants to Italy, the Turkish authorities blocked their access to these freighters. This caused the migrants to get stuck in Turkey for months.

The migrants had already paid traffickers for transportation to Italy and no refund was possible. Thus they were given an option to head for Greece instead of Italy as it was nearer to Turkey and could be reached easily on small dinghies.

A failed attempt to turn an old stadium into a registration centre for refugees resulted in turmoil on Tuesday and Wednesday. The refugees waited inside the stadium with no access to toilets and limited water supply for more than 12 hours. The temperature soared to 35 degrees centigrade, which caused many to faint at a rate of one in 15 minutes. Youssef, 29, who was a banker in Syria, criticised the sluggish and unprofessional manner in which the entire process took place after he was released early on Thursday. “I have a bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA,” he said. “It’s a shame to treat us like this.”

Many migrants like Youssef who have already registered are still stuck on the island, whereas thousands of others are yet to be registered. With hundreds of refugees arriving every day, the Greek government has sent the cruise liner, the Eleftherios Venizelos, to help solve the problem. “It’s not going to be used as a camp. As soon as it is filled with migrants, the ship with depart and another ship will come,” said Kos’ mayor, Giorgos Kyritsis.

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