Galery

1

The pictures of embattled Mytilene are nightmarish. The city has become the epicentre of clashes, as well as a huge camp with thousands of immigrants living in tents strewn all over public spaces. The registration process is mired in chaos. It seems impossible for it to be completed in the current conditions. Groups of refugees are attempting to board the ships and leave the island without the necessary documents and tickets.

After yesterday's clashes at the port of Mytilene, when a crowd of Afghans tried to invade a ship departing for Piraeus, new episodes of violence broke out this morning.

Two 17-year-olds threw a Molotov cocktail against Syrians camping in Mytilene's municipal park at 2 a.m. A Syrian was slightly injured and taken to hospital. 15 minutes later, the same boys threw another Molotov at a Syrian family camping in Hadzidimou park however the bomb fell in a brick building in the park, caught fire and the flames went towards an Afghan family sleeping nearby, fortunately, however, hurting them.

Early this morning, the two youths were arrested after a camera filmed them in Hadzidimou park. They have allegedly owned up to what they did and tomorrow will face a prosecutor.

Meanwhile, cruise ship Eleftherios Venizelos was scheduled to set sail from Mytilene at 5:30 a.m. with 2,500 passengers on board, but is still in the harbour. only 1,000 tickets were handed out before nine o'clock.

Two squads of MAT special forces arrived on the island in the morning to beef up the police and the coast guard on the island. Along with them, came 30 Coast Guard and police employees to help speed up the immigrants' registration.

According to reports, the port registration centre will close down and the process will shift to the Kara Tepe camp, 3 km north of the city. This means that thousands of people will have to move there. But the camp looks unprepared for a registration centre.

The total number of immigrants on the island remains unknown, but according to some estimates it is up to 20,000 people. More than half have yet to be registered, and therefore they cannot be issued with a boat ticket allowing them to leave the island.

This is why Mytilene has turned into an endless camp. There are tents all over the harbour, on the pavement of the promenade, in the Tsamakia area, in the municipal park, Agia Irini park, even in remote Karapanayoti park. Clashes have flared up among immigrants from different nationalities, as well as between immigrants and local residents or law enforcers.

Lesbos mayor Spyros Galinos urged citizens not to participate in the September 20 elections and warned that the island won't build polling stations, unless the immigrants and refugees problem is immediately solved.

The mayor reiterated that in recent days Mytilene has been going through an extremely difficult, unprecedented situation. "An island with 85,000 inhabitants has born on its shoulders such a humanitarian crisis ... now there is a serious risk for the safety, health and integrity of both our citizens and the immigrants and refugees who have flooded the island in their thousands," Galinos argued.

He also warned: "We have repeatedly called for measures to save Lesbos. We have made appeals to both the EU and our government, which to date have all fallen on deaf ears. We urge the people of Lesbos to ignore the coming elections, and declare our intention to abstain from installing polling stations unless measures are taken immediately to alleviate the situation. Unfortunately, as our desperate voices have not been heard, we are determined to accomplish this unless a solution is found."