{"id":573,"date":"2016-07-19T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T12:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting\/?p=573"},"modified":"2022-03-25T18:35:07","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T18:35:07","slug":"island-hospitality-refugee-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/2016\/07\/19\/island-hospitality-refugee-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Island hospitality, refugee style"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alexandra Markovich <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The office of the mayor of Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos island, overlooks the Aegean Sea. Huge windows open onto the city\u2019s port, where discarded boats that once carried refugees to the island are still docked. Less than 10\u00a0miles separate the island from Turkey\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n

Marios Andriotis-Konstantios, the senior advisor to the mayor of Mytilene, is\u00a0quick to praise the local government for its treatment of some 3,000 refugees stranded on Lesbos after the EU-Turkey deal was made in March. Some wait for asylum applications to be processed in Greece, some to be relocated to countries like Germany, but most await deportation to Turkey.<\/p>\n

In celebration of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, Andriotis-Konstantios said the migrants on Lesvos enjoyed \u201cexceptional festivities.\u201d He said the mayor\u2019s office ordered two tons of dates and commissioned a Syrian musical group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe festivities lasted for five days. Our biggest Greek Orthodox holiday lasts only three days!\u201d Andriotis-Konstantios said, praising the efforts of the community to make Eid-al-Fitr special for refugees. Andriotis-Konstantios cites the celebration as only the island\u2019s latest expression of hospitality.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"boats<\/p>\n

Boats seized from human smugglers line the harbor of\u00a0Mytilene (Joe Stephens)<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lesbos has hosted 90,000 refugees since January 2016 alone, bearing the brunt of international migration from countries like Syria and Afghanistan. The island has been praised for its humanitarian response to the crisis, and islanders on the frontlines have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n

The \u201cfestivities\u201d were held at Kara Tepe, Mytilene\u2019s open-door refugee camp. But at Moria, a closed refugee camp run by the military, no such celebrations were to be found.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Moria, you have to fight to solve basic problems,\u201d said Ilektra Koutsoumani, an aid-worker from Doctors of the World who has worked at Moria since December, explaining the difference in circumstances at the two camps. Kara Tepe Camp calls itself a “hospitality center”, while Moria Camp operates as a temporary detention center when migrants first arrive, complete with guards and fences topped with coils of razor wire. Only after 25 days at Moria are migrants free to leave the camp, and even then\u00a0they must remain on the island.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Mytilini<\/p>\n

Mytilene (Joe Stephens)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Andriotis-Konstantios said that the municipality did not have the means to build a mosque, using informal prayer spaces erected at Kara Tepe Camp. But even if it did, it has little reason to erect a permanent structure. It is only a matter of time before nearly all of the refugees will leave Lesvos, and the island will once again be overrun by tourists.<\/p>\n

Stavros Mirogiamis, General Director at at Kara Tepe Camp, refers to the 750 refugees living at the site as \u201cguests,\u201d in an effort to avoid dehumanizing language. But the term emphasizes the transience of the visitors\u2014no one knows how much longer the refugees will remain, but the camp has an expiration date.<\/p>\n

Some 57,000 refugees remain in Greece and, though few want to stay in a\u00a0country still reeling from its own economic crisis, many will be forced to make Athens their home in the coming years. Athens, already home to more than\u00a0300,000 Muslims, is the only European capital without a mosque, and also lacks a cemetery for Muslims.<\/p>\n

After a shipwreck saw the death of more than\u00a080 migrants, Lesbos sidestepped Greece\u2019s two-year waiting process to build a much-needed cemetery, Andriotis-Konstantios said, another show of hospitality that mainland Greeks have failed to live up to. Back in Athens, the city\u2019s Muslim population continues to wait for the government to construct a cemetery, sending their dead abroad in the meantime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alexandra Markovich The office of the mayor of Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos island, overlooks the Aegean Sea. Huge windows open onto the city\u2019s port, where discarded boats that once carried refugees to the island are still docked. Less than 10\u00a0miles separate the island from Turkey\u2019s coast. Marios Andriotis-Konstantios, the senior advisor to the<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/07\/Statue-of-Liberty.jpg?fit=2234%2C2074&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7wyBy-9f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":631,"url":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/2016\/07\/21\/paradise-lost\/","url_meta":{"origin":573,"position":0},"title":"Paradise lost","author":"hwb","date":"July 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Harrison Blackman Four months have passed since the European Union outlawed undocumented migration from Turkey, effectively trapping new arrivals\u00a0from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan in camps in Greece. As of July, United Nations statistics show that the agreement has cut arrivals by sea from the peak\u00a0of 210,000 people a month\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lesbos"","block_context":{"text":"Lesbos","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/category\/lesbos\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/07\/IMG_6303.jpg?fit=859%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/07\/IMG_6303.jpg?fit=859%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/07\/IMG_6303.jpg?fit=859%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/07\/IMG_6303.jpg?fit=859%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":602,"url":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/2016\/07\/23\/lesbos-the-waiting-game\/","url_meta":{"origin":573,"position":1},"title":"Lesbos: The Waiting Game","author":"hroth","date":"July 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Hayley Roth Take a walk down the main street of Mytilene, the capital of the Greek island of Lesbos, and you\u2019ll see freshly-scrubbed storefronts, colorful awnings and potted plants. Hotels, restaurants and travel agencies face the placid waters of the Aegean. Docked boats scrape against the sidewalks. Shopkeepers lounge\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/07\/72961c3c-c533-4a6e-a9cc-00f2ec87a99c.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/07\/72961c3c-c533-4a6e-a9cc-00f2ec87a99c.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/07\/72961c3c-c533-4a6e-a9cc-00f2ec87a99c.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1,"url":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/2016\/05\/09\/hello-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":573,"position":2},"title":"About this project","author":"Joe Stephens","date":"May 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to Borderland, a project of students in Princeton University\u2019s first border-crossing global journalism seminar, \u201cReporting on the Frontlines in Greece.\u201d In June and July 2016, \u00a0students traveled to Athens and the island of Lesbos, notebooks and cameras in hand, to serve as eyewitnesses at a pivotal moment in world\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/05\/2-Ship-Mytilene-dawn-TWO-.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/05\/2-Ship-Mytilene-dawn-TWO-.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/05\/2-Ship-Mytilene-dawn-TWO-.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/05\/2-Ship-Mytilene-dawn-TWO-.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/05\/2-Ship-Mytilene-dawn-TWO-.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":553,"url":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/2016\/06\/30\/ai-weiwei-comes-to-lesbos\/","url_meta":{"origin":573,"position":3},"title":"Ai Weiwei comes to Lesbos","author":"Joe Stephens","date":"June 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By James Haynes ATHENS -- Ai Weiwei has made bringing attention to crises a lifelong effort. As the Chinese artist once told an interviewer, \"If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?\" Most recently, he has been pointing attention toward Greece. 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By Hayley Roth and Iris Samuels \u00a0ATHENS, Greece -- Two young boys with skinny frames, buzzed hair and bright t-shirts jostled beneath the hot Greek sun. 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