Ship to house, process Syrian migrants

KOS, Greece: Hundreds of Syrian migrants on the Greek island of Kos began boarding a passenger ship yesterday that is to house and process them, in a bid to ease sometimes chaotic conditions onshore.

Greek officials had delayed the embarkation at the quayside in Kos for more than a day, working on plans to avoid disorder among the increasingly desperate migrants who have arrived on the island in dinghies and small boats from nearby Turkey.

The boarding of the car ferry Eleftherios Venizelos, which arrived in Kos on Friday, began in the cooler night hours in an organised and orderly fashion.

The ship, chartered by the Greek government, is to provide accommodation for about 2 500 Syrians in its cabins and an area for processing paperwork. As the Syrians are fleeing their country’s civil war, they are treated as refugees. This gives them greater rights under international law than those from other countries regarded as economic migrants.

Nearly a quarter-of-amillion migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration. About half have come to the Greek islands.

The Greek government chartered the vessel to take some of the pressure off Kos.

On Saturday, about 50 migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran fought each other outside the island’s main police station, throwing stones and exchanging blows as tempers boiled over. They have little chance of getting aboard the ship.

At least 40 migrants died after apparently getting trapped and suffocating in the water-logged hold of a fishing boat in the Mediterranean, the Italian navy said.