The transport of refugees and migrants from eastern Aegean islands to mainland Greece continues unabated, as an additional 2,171 Syrian nationals are expected to disembark from the passenger ferry ‘Eleftherios Venizelos’, which was scheduled to dock at the port of Piraeus on Friday afternoon.
This follows another 2,500 refugees collected by the ferry from the islands of Kos, Kalymnos, Leros and Lesvos (Lesbos) and transported to Greece’s largest port a day earlier.

The ship will drop off the refugees and refuel before leaving again on route to island to collect more people. Meanwhile, the residents of the small island of Agathonisi, situated about 50km south of the island of Samos, are desperately calling on authorities for help as they are being literally overwhelmed by the influx of third country nationals, most claiming they are Syrians fleeing war zones.

According to the newspaper ‘Ethnos’, the irregular immigrants reaching the small isle are over double in number compared to the local population of 150.

Agathonisi Mayor Egvangelos Kottoros requested urgent help from the state, stressing that the island had nowhere to house the 340 foreigners that illegally crossed over or were ferried by Turkish migrant smugglers onto the island.