KOS, Greece (AP) – Greek police registration officers working around the clock greatly reduced the numbers of Syrian refugees stuck in miserable conditions on the holiday island of Kos Thursday, where hundreds arrive daily in packed boats from Turkey.
A rudimentary processing center set up in a stadium on Kos was running much more smoothly after police issued temporary travel papers to at least 1,000 men, women and children who had been penned inside for up to a day without adequate shelter, food or drinking water.
But large numbers of refugees remained camped on a tree-lined coastal promenade outside the stadium waiting to register. Around 7,000 Middle Eastern migrants, mainly Syrians, reached the eastern Aegean Sea island last month – twice as many as in June – and up to 5,000 are thought to be stuck there waiting for the documents that will let them travel on toward wealthier European countries.
“The registration process is going very well, it’s very important to say that (police) were working until 4 in the morning yesterday and started again very early today,” Kos mayor Giorgos Kyritsis said.
“About 700-1,000 people are being registered every day, and I believe that most of the people here will have been registered by the weekend, and the situation will no longer be so intense.”