More than 90,000 refugees and migrants have arrived on Samos
this year as they flee war and destitution. It is three times as many people as
those who live on this sleepy eastern Aegean island, which has been thrust into
the frontline of global events. An informal network of local officials,
volunteers and NGO workers has been created to support the arrivals, who often
have a tragic story to tell but are always hoping that Samos represents the
start of a better life.
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| A small child’s shoe! These are among the items strewn across Kalima beach on the eastern Aegean island of Samos on a sunny February day. |
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| 'Christina' in the distance |
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Gulf of Kuşadası - becoming our regular winter cruising ground.
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This is the detritus of the largest influx of refugees and migrants from
the nearby Turkish coast that this island of less than 33,000 inhabitants has
seen since the Asia Minor Greeks fled the onslaught of Turkish troops almost a
century earlier.
More than 90,000 people, mostly Syrian refugees, have
arrived on Samos by sea this year. This is much lower than the main Aegean
gateway of Lesvos, which almost half a million people out more than 800,000
have reached in 2015, but is still several times higher than last year’s
arrivals and makes Samos the third most popular of some 15 islands that have
become stepping stones for refugees and migrants on their way to Central and
Northern Europe, where they hope to find security and prosperity. Until they
can make that onward journey, Samos will provide their first taste of the
European Union for thousands of desperate people. It is here that they will be
at the mercy of overburdened authorities, the vagaries of the asylum process
and the kindness of strangers.
