Dispatches: The Ugly Truth Behind British Tourists’ Ruined Holidays in Greece
First thing this morning, I read an article in the Daily Mail about British tourists on the Greek island Kos who complained about asylum seekers ruining their holidays and turning the island into a “disgusting hellhole.”
I have just returned from Kos, where I met with asylum seekers who crossed by boat from Turkey to Greece. Let me tell you something about hellholes.
I spoke with men, women, and children fleeing war in Syria and pervasive violence and persecution in Afghanistan. Nour, a young Palestinian from Syria, fled for fear of the extremist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS). “They kill people, cut heads, harm us psychologically. Once, I was walking at night and I stepped on something, grabbed it to see what it was, and felt some kind of hair. It was a head. That’s why we left.” Mubarek left northern Afghanistan with his wife and three young sons because of the threat of the Taliban: “Every day the Taliban take people and children for suicide bombings. I was worried about my sons.”
I also heard about the grim conditions on Kos. There is no reception facility, so police take migrants and asylum seekers to an abandoned hotel with makeshift beds, limited running water, and no electricity. Others sleep in tents provided by Doctors without Borders, while still others are left on the streets.
