The border isle of Gavdos’ roughly 80 permanent residents will be called on to care for the nearly 100 illegal migrants that swam ashore to the remote island in the early morning hours on Thursday, at least until authorities can evacuate the third country nationals, which include minors and elderly.
Gavdos, which lies south of the large island of Crete, was unreachable by ferry boat on Thursday due to rough seas in the area.
The irregular migrants, which reportedly hail from North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, will be accommodated in the small isle’s main village, Kastri.
Approximately one nurse serving on the island has assumed the role of making health checks on the group.
Meanwhile, on another more well-known destination, the eastern Aegean island of Kos, its mayor on Thursday issued an urgent plea towards the central government in Athens, warning that roughly 250 migrants are arriving daily from the opposite Turkish coast.
Mayor Giorgos Kyritsis told protothema.gr that he has addressed a letter to the prime minister and relevant ministers to deal with the explosive situation.
“We will not accept another Amygdaleza (migrant detention centre) on Kos. More than 250 people are arriving from Turkey everyday. They first cut up their (inflatable) craft to be rescued by the Greek coast guard. Most of the illegal migrants reaching our country are well-off. They possess expensive mobile phone and go directly to the area’s police precinct via GPS,” Kyritsis said.
The courtyard of the police precinct on Kos.
The holiday island’s mayor warned that local police are understaffed to deal with the deluge in illegal migrants being smuggled onto the island, with groups of undocumented third country nationals now sleeping in practically every open space in the port city’s centre, as he said.
