Aegean locals are tiring of refugees from Turkey, but migration doesn’t look to be stopping any time soon.
Greece has decided to stop construction on new refugee camps, but Tasos Ioannidis with AMG International believes that the situation is only meant to appease locals and won’t last very long.
Neither are the islanders going to get what they really want. “They want, really, the refugees to be moved from the islands to the mainland, and the government does not want to do that, because then Turkey refuses to take back those who come but are denied asylum. So once they leave the islands it’s harder to return them if their applications for asylum are rejected. So it’s a complicated situation.”
If refugees can reach the mainland, they get much better care than in severely overcrowded refugee camps. AMG can also help them assimilate to Greek culture, training them in language and giving them permanent homes.
Ioannidis says, “There are times when there is medical help needed, and they have nowhere else to turn, So, in those cases, we do care for a number of refugees at St. Luke’s Hospital as the need arises and as we have the ability to do so.”
SOURCE: Mission Network News, Kevin Zeller
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