A delegation from the Vatican met with refugees and migrants at the reception center in Moria, a village on the Greek island of Lesbos. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski promised: "The Catholic Church is ready to host refugees."
Through his papal charities chief, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, Pope Francis is donating 100,000 euros to the Greek branch of Caritas to go towards the needs of asylum seekers and refugees on Lesbos as well as for local communities.
The only Catholic church on the Greek island of Lesbos has become a haven for many African migrants who have crossed the Aegean Sea from Turkey. Traveling through Turkey is an increasingly popular route for African migrants heading to Europe who are desperate to avoid torture and slavery on their journey through Libya.
Spanish charities including Proactiva Open Arms received the green light to set sail from the port of Barcelona on Wednesday. Instead of returning to the central Mediterranean to save migrants, the NGOs will deliver aid supplies to migrants on the Greek islands.
The damp containers and tents of Moria Camp on Lesbos feel like a dead-end for many migrants and refugees, who have traveled weeks or months and paid people-smugglers often large sums of money to reach the European Union. Faced with criticism over poor living conditions, the camp’s director tells InfoMigrants he and his team are "doing our best, but we have new arrivals all the time."
The Hollywood actress Katie Holmes and her daughter were on the Greek island of Lesbos last week working with refugees in the Moria refugee camp. Both Katie Holmes and the organization she was working with, (New York based) Artolution, posted photos on Instagram about the experience.
The Greek coast guard said it recovered the bodies of a girl and a woman on the shores of the island of Lesbos Sunday. The child is believed to have drowned in a migrant boat accident last month.
A gateway to Europe, the Greek island of Lesbos saw tens of thousands of refugees arrive in 2015. Back then, the islanders rushed to help the new arrivals. But today, sympathy has given way to exasperation. Many migrants are stuck on the island, waiting for their asylum requests to be processed. Their living conditions are dire; some have lost everything in a fire. Our reporters went to Lesbos, where they witnessed the migrants' plight, but also the growing frustration of local residents.
Unions on the Greek island of Lesbos will take to the streets February 7, striking to demand closure of the island's Moria refugee camp, which human rights groups and NGOs have deemed "overcrowded and squalid."
Two new facilities are set to open soon in a bid to ease the pressure on the overcrowded refugee camps on the north eastern Aegean islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros.
Amnesty International visited the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, and in a letter to Greece's Prime minister defines it "a scar on the conscience of Europe."
Human Rights Watch is denouncing living conditions for asylum seekers on the Greek island of Lesbos, where it said the terrible conditions could worsen into a humanitarian disaster as winter arrives.