Pressure mounts on crowded Greek islands as migrant arrivals surge


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It is about 9pm on August 29 and men, women and children lay scattered along the sides of the concrete path in the entrance to the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.

There are more than usual because 13 boats carrying 546 people, half of them children, landed during the day.

They have the dubious honour of being the largest number of asylum seekers to arrive on the island in one day since 2015.

The new arrivals are forced to sleep outside with thin blankets for comfort and the few possessions they arrived with as they wait to be given tents.

This was not the refuge they envisioned when they risked their lives to sail there from Turkey.

Families usually spend a day or two living outside but single adults may have to wait several weeks here before being given a tent.

Moria houses about 10,000 people despite having an official capacity of only 3,000. And conditions will only get worse as as winter approaches.

The crisis is replicated throughout Greek islands in the North Aegean region, which received 225 boats carrying 8,000 refugees during August, said Norwegian charity Aegean Boat Report, which monitors arrivals.

The numbers could rise if Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan carries out his recent threat to stop blocking refugees from leaving for Europe, going back on the March 2016 agreement with the EU that stemmed the tide of arrivals.

Turkey stopped 454 boats in August and arrested more than 14,000 people.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned Mr Erdogan against using coercion to seek more assistance in hosting more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees.

"Europe has given a lot of money, €6 billion [Dh24.32 billion] in recent years, within the framework of an agreement between Europe and Turkey and which was mutually beneficial," Mr Mitsotakis said on Sunday.

His government is already taking steps to deal with the influx, announcing on September 1 that it would strengthen patrols of its maritime borders.

It also announced quicker transfers of asylum applicants from the islands to the mainland, and faster deportations of those ejected.

The next day 1,500 were moved from Lesbos to the mainland. But about 53 more boats have landed on the islands since then.

The plans have gathered a mixed response. While action is needed to address the huge number of migrants on the islands, there are fears it could lead to vulnerable people being sent back to life-threatening situations.

Len Meachim, a lay official at Lesbos's only Catholic church, said steps were needed to shorten the asylum application process, but he was concerned this approach might lead to “some injustices taking place”.

Mr Meachim's congregation is filled with members of different African communities at Mass every Sunday.

“Apart from the awful conditions of Moria, it’s the waiting and the not knowing what the answer will be that causes people a great deal of stress and anxiety,” he said.

“Equally, people need time to recover from the trauma they’ve suffered throughout their journeys and in the countries they’ve come from, while having the chance to put their case together.

“There is also the issue that the government is not providing enough accommodation on the mainland so there are people on the island who have had their travel restrictions lifted but they still have nowhere to go.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman from Pikpa Camp, an open camp for vulnerable refugees housing about 90 people on Lesbos, said he had concerns that in order to accelerate deportations, the authorities “are ready to violate some more rights of migrants”.

“In general, we will stand against any deportation as we believe in people's rights to movement," the spokesman said.

"As for the cases we know, we will make sure to protect them from arrest to avoid any risk of them being deported."

Katrin Brubakk is a trained clinical child psychologist but also works with adults in a mental health clinic run by Doctors without Borders (MSF) in Lesbos’s port town of Mytilene.

Ms Brubakk has been involved with the refugee operation since 2015 and said self-harm was a huge issue for residents in Moria.

“At the very beginning, the refugees were only here for a few days but after the implementation of the EU-Turkey deal in 2017, most stay here for long periods of time," she said.

"I’ve met people who’ve been in the camp for three years."

Ms Brubakk said many patients who visited the clinic were suicidal.

“People have lost hope," she said. "When you lose hope, you lose coping mechanisms. You fall apart and that’s when you get really sick.”

Tens of thousands of people have been stranded in Greece since the EU-Turkey deal and the closure of land borders in the Balkans.

Under the EU agreement, migrants arriving in Greece could be sent back to Turkey if they did not apply for asylum or their application was rejected.

Greece has repeatedly come under fire from international aid groups for not taking steps to improve the living conditions of its refugee camps.

Rasmeih, 48, from Syria, was among the arrivals on August 29 including her husband and four children aged between 9 and 17 – one of whom has autism.

Instead of spending a night in the transfer camp on the north of the island where they landed, the family were sent to Moria the same day because of the huge number of arrivals.

They were given a tent immediately but say they had not been given instructions about where to collect food and did not eat for almost 24 hours as a result.

Despite the conditions, which Rasmeih had no idea about before arriving, she said she was just relieved that her family were finally safe.

“My husband was a police officer in Aleppo but he ran away when he was told to kill people," she said.

"We moved to Turkey for a year but we moved back to Syria when people told us it was safe.

"We had a farm in Idlib but there were many air strikes and bombs, so my husband sold the land and we made our way here with that money because people told us we’d be safe.

“When I saw the Greek police, I wept with joy.”

Magalie, 19, is five months pregnant and used to be a teacher in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

She fled with her boyfriend to escape sexual abuse at the hands of a male relative but she is struggling to cope with her new reality since arriving in mid-August.

“I’m very scared about giving birth here and how I will raise a baby in conditions like this,” Magalie said.

England squad

Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Dominic Bess, James Bracey, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Ben Foakes, Lewis Gregory, Keaton Jennings, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Jamie Overton, Matthew Parkinson, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Dom Sibley, Ben Stokes, Olly Stone, Amar Virdi, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

House-hunting

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PROFILE OF INVYGO

Started: 2018

Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo

Based: Dubai

Sector: Transport

Size: 9 employees

Investment: $1,275,000

Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri

Spain drain

CONVICTED

Lionel Messi Found guilty in 2016 of of using companies in Belize, Britain, Switzerland and Uruguay to avoid paying €4.1m in taxes on income earned from image rights. Sentenced to 21 months in jail and fined more than €2m. But prison sentence has since been replaced by another fine of €252,000.

Javier Mascherano Accepted one-year suspended sentence in January 2016 for tax fraud after found guilty of failing to pay €1.5m in taxes for 2011 and 2012. Unlike Messi he avoided trial by admitting to tax evasion.

Angel di Maria Argentina and Paris Saint-Germain star Angel di Maria was fined and given a 16-month prison sentence for tax fraud during his time at Real Madrid. But he is unlikely to go to prison as is normal in Spain for first offences for non-violent crimes carrying sentence of less than two years.

 

SUSPECTED

Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid's star striker, accused of evading €14.7m in taxes, appears in court on Monday. Portuguese star faces four charges of fraud through offshore companies.

Jose Mourinho Manchester United manager accused of evading €3.3m in tax in 2011 and 2012, during time in charge at Real Madrid. But Gestifute, which represents him, says he has already settled matter with Spanish tax authorities.

Samuel Eto'o In November 2016, Spanish prosecutors sought jail sentence of 10 years and fines totalling €18m for Cameroonian, accused of failing to pay €3.9m in taxes during time at Barcelona from 2004 to 2009.

Radamel Falcao Colombian striker Falcao suspected of failing to correctly declare €7.4m of income earned from image rights between 2012 and 2013 while at Atletico Madrid. He has since paid €8.2m to Spanish tax authorities, a sum that includes interest on the original amount.

Jorge Mendes Portuguese super-agent put under official investigation last month by Spanish court investigating alleged tax evasion by Falcao, a client of his. He defended himself, telling closed-door hearing he "never" advised players in tax matters.

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if you go

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The trip 

Jamie Lafferty was a guest of the Jordan Tourist Board. For more information on adventure tourism in Jordan see Visit Jordan. A number of new and established tour companies offer the chance to go caving, rock-climbing, canyoning, and mountaineering in Jordan. Prices vary depending on how many activities you want to do and how many days you plan to stay in the country. Among the leaders are Terhaal, who offer a two-day canyoning trip from Dh845 per person. If you really want to push your limits, contact the Stronger Team. For a more trek-focused trip, KE Adventure offers an eight-day trip from Dh5,300 per person.