Greek island of Lesbos struggles with migrant arrivals
Mytilene (Greece) (AFP) - Some 25,000 refugees and migrants, mostly from Syria, have descended on the Aegean island of Lesbos so far this year, local officials say -- a massive increase that has piled pressure on debt-ridden Greece.
"From January 1 we have received 25,000 migrants compared to 8,500 last year," the island's coastguard chief Nikos Varthis told AFP on Thursday.
The island also known as Myteline has been hard-pressed to give temporary shelter to the migrants until they can be documented and then moved to Athens for asylum applications.
This week, scuffles broke out between Syrian and Afghan migrants over priority access to the ferry to the mainland.
After sleeping on the floor in and around the coastguard offices, the migrants are now housed in a disused swimming centre and a makeshift tent camp a few kilometres (miles) outside the island capital.
"We have lost count of daily arrivals," local mayor Spyros Galinos said. ...
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