About 200 unregistered refugees trying to board a ship scuffled with police and coast guard officials on the Greek island of Lesbos on Friday, with television footage showing refugees throwing stones at police.
The clashes erupted as senior European Union officials visiting Greece promised more help to countries on the frontline of a refugee crisis that has seen hundreds of people, many fleeing war and poverty, arriving on Greek shores every day. "About 200 refugees that were not registered tried to get on a ferry at the port and they were pushed back by the police and the coast guard," coast guard spokesman Nikos Lagkadianos said.
European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans said in remarks broadcast from the Greek island of Kos that Brussels would next week propose an expanded scheme to relocate asylum seekers around the bloc. Athens will receive 33 million euros from Brussels in the first tranche of funds Greece has asked for to cope with the influx of refugees, Timmermans said, adding that countries should also speed up the process of weeding out bogus asylum claims. The interim Greek government this week asked for 700 million euros of funding in total.
"So if we are to stay in touch with our own humanity and keep support from the European population for a humane asylum policy we have to make sure that people who do not have the right to asylum are identified quickly and sent back from where they came from," Timmermans said. "If we do not succeed in doing that, the asylum policy will collapse and that would be a tragedy for our European values." Help can't come soon enough for the mayor of Lesbos' main town, who on Friday made a public plea for aid and for Athens to declare a state of emergency on the island.
"For four months now I have been saying that I am holding a bomb in my hands and the fuse is slowly burning," Spyros Galinos, mayor of Mytilini said. "Two days ago I sent a letter asking to declare the island in a state of emergency. Today I am asking the prime minister for immediate relief measures, the situation has become unmanageable." Conditions for refugees on the islands have been criticised in the past, including by the United Nations' refugee agency. On Friday, Amnesty International said it had witnessed a violent attack on the refugees in Kos, by 15-25 people wielding bats and shouting abuse.
A ship carrying 2,493 refugees collected from various Greek islands arrived in Athens earlier on Friday. "It is a very difficult trip," said Mohad, a 27-year-old refugee from Damascus. "We were very hungry and thirsty on the Farmakonisi island. Actually we are suffering from a lot of things. But we hope to arrive to specific area like Germany or Sweden or any country protect us, OK?"
