I don’t normally get myself into this kind of thing on my blog, but this is a story that could run, and not everyone would have picked up on it yet. Greek Reporter have picked up on a ‘shocking’ article in the UK’s Daily Mail, their (GR) headline reads: Σοκαριστικό άρθρο της Daily Mail: «Οι μετανάστες μετατρέπουν την Κω σε αηδιαστική κόλαση» Or: Shocking article in the Daily Mail: «Immigrants convert Kos to a disgusting hell.”
I read the online piece by the DM and wasn’t sure if I was more outraged by the dreadful writing, or the misspelling of Dodecanese, or the scaremongering, or the tourists reported as saying things like they couldn’t eat their lunch with refuges watching, or… well all of it really. A complete disgrace to the British press in my humble opinion. And the British people. I mean, people coming to Kos for a holiday and saying they won’t return if it looks like a refugee camp again, and saying this, I assume as they quaff into their beers and three course meals, while camping out at an all-inclusive hotel that cost them only a month’s wages ‘cos they got a special offer in the Daily Mail.
The Greek Reporter also says that: “At least 6,000 migrants arrived on the island of Kos in the past two months, while the Dodecanese totaled 30,000 refugees. In the last two days alone 1,200 people arrived in Kos, and every day more come.” (My translation.) The full article, in Greek, is here: http://rodosreport.gr/dail-mail-kos-metanastes/ You can copy and paste it into a translator online. I won’t give you the link to the Daily Mail article at the center of this storm as I don’t want to promote such hideous reporting, but I am sure you will find it online if you really want to.
And, by the way, read that again: 6,000 refugees, on Kos alone, in the last two months. If you know Symi you will know that 3,000 people live here. So that’s like the population of Symi all leaving in one month and leaving everything behind, because it’s a case of ‘Kill, or be killed,’ as a refugee explained it to me.
When we were in Kos last year we met some refugees and shared our hotel with others. We chatted, they told us their story, which I’ve noted here before, and we also saw them at the police station which was very well set up to deal with them. Now that numbers are increasing there simply isn’t anywhere else for them to go while they wait for a boat onwards. Local people donate money and clothes even though a lot of local families are struggling to make ends meet. The refugees then move on to other European countries, the guys we spoke to were heading to Scandinavia. Some of them had to swim 200 meters when thrown overboard from their boat, others, as we know, don’t make it and get washed up on the shores, dead.
I reckon we should shove a boat load of so called ‘reporters’ into an inflatable dinghy at night (with very little money, no clothes, but with their children) and see how they get across the sea to Asia Minor, and then see if they can survive with 100 people sharing one toilet while they get their papers stamped and sent into unfamiliar territory with little or no local language and… Well, I can’t go on, my blood pressure is up.
It’s getting out of hand, it’s a humanitarian disaster, the world needs to help a semi-third world country like Greece to deal with the thousands of arrivals each week, and the British hate rags need to either report objectively or shut the farouk up. So, if you go on holiday to a Greek island this summer and find a refugee family temporarily housed next door, just remember, you are on holiday, love, you’re not fleeing for your life!
