Refugee situation on Lesbos has worsened–UN

There are currently no fewer than 16,000 asylum seekers on Lesbos, while the island only has space to accommodate 2,800 properly, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said.

UNHCR Europe Representative, Diane Goodman, said in Geneva that many people, including women with newborn babies, were forced to sleep in the open and had to warm themselves around fires.

Goodman described the island as ‘’resembling the epicentre of a crisis’’ as tension between the refugees, locals and police had increased.

‘’With the approach of winter, concerns were increasing that the problems would get out of hand,’’ he added.
UNHCR estimates no fewer than 3,300 refugees arrive on Lesbos every day by boat.

The migrants are then ferried to the mainland in order to continue their journey to Western Europe.

Out of the 660,000 refugees who arrived in Greece since the beginning of 2015, UNHCR said that more than half of them landed on Lesbos, which lies close to the Turkish coast.