Refugees: The Growing Cloud Over Samos

by Alec Newell

 

Greek official with refugees in Pythagorio, Samos - photo by Newell



The road between Avlakia and Vathi
photo by Newell

Until this year, one of the best things about being on Samos had been a vacation from the US daily news and the angst that always seemed to accompany it.  This season we have been bombarded with news from the folks back home about how bad the economy is here.  We were seeing it all first hand and probably had a better read on how things were than the information we were getting from all the third hand Email sources.  Greece has been having money problems for decades.  No news in that.



Refugees in Pythagorio - photo by Newell

What has really gotten our attention this year hasn't been the Greek economy so much as the hundreds of refugees who have been pouring ashore at night, leaving the beaches littered with scuttled life rafts, discarded clothing, empty plastic water jugs,  inner tubes, and orange life jackets.  Yesterday, almost as comic relief to the situation, I noticed a group of Greek boys swimming behind the seawall at Agios Konstantinos, playing with inner tubes, life vests, and an inflatable raft they'd salvaged from the beach.  Greek Huck Finns on the Aegean.

Greek boys playing in Agios Konstantios - photo by Newell

 

Pythagorio - photo by Newell 

The word from the locals is that these people are fleeing from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia.  Most of them are passing through Turkey to escape the slaughter of Christians and the forced conscription of military aged men into groups like ISIS and the Taliban.  We have heard that Turkish coyotes are charging $1500.00 per adult and $800.00 per child, or about $30,000.00 per trip to tow a boat load of refugees to within a short distance of Samian beaches, then dumping them.  By morning there seem to be small groups of wet refugees and floating debris everywhere.


People who have been coming to Samos for twenty years now, say that there is no precedent for what we are seeing this season.  Web sources estimate that in the first five months of 2015 alone, more than 42,000 illegal "immigrants" have come ashore on Greek islands, or six times the total number that were estimated for all if 2014.  Given all the noisy press Greece has been getting about their economy, we thought it odd that there had been so little in the news about the refugees





Refugees in Pythagorio - photo by Newell