Greece: Nearly 1,000 migrants held in three months

By Furkan Naci Top and Ayhan Mehmet

PATRAS, Greece (AA) – Nearly 1,000 undocumented migrants were held in Greek portal city of Patras in the first three months of 2018, according to information obtained from the Patras police.

Migrants are often arrested when trying to jump over iron fences around the harbor and are mostly found in hidden sections of containers on trucks, waiting on the harbor for the ships that leave the port city at night, a security official told Anadolu Agency, requesting anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

Those apprehended by the police are taken outside the harbor and are either released immediately or after spending a day in jail.

The source said there had been a considerable increase in the number of migrants since 2016.

In 2016, Greek police forces rounded up nearly 1,000 migrants trying to illegally cross into wealthier European countries, said the source, noting that this figure rose to over 2,600 in the year 2017.

“As for 2018,” the source added, “the number of asylum seekers arrested on the harbor exceeded 1,000 in the first three months of the year alone.”

- Living standards of migrants

Furthermore, the source added that the migrants faced serious security and health issues living in the suburban areas near the harbor. Some live in disused warehouses or stores infested with vermin, unable to receive any health services other than those organized by benevolent individuals.

There are nearly 60,000 refugees stranded in Greece with aspirations to go to other European countries to hopefully change their lives.

They resort to every method to reach this goal, including fake passports, the source said.