The fishing village that looks askance at refugees

The ferry to which the migrants are going to be transferred, this Monday in Sigri.Álvaro García

The Blue Star Chios ferry seems bigger than Sigri, the town where it has been docked for five days.

The silhouette of the ship, with its starry chimney and gaudy colors, stands out from any corner of this small fishing port on the west coast of Lesbos.

The ship's crew is waiting for the Greek government to decide whether to finally transfer 1,000 of the 13,000 migrants who had to evacuate the Moria refugee camp after the fires that swept through it last week to their cabins.

300 people live in Sigri and the possibility of hosting this thousand displaced people has generated a wave of resentment among the local population, because they consider that they are in the front line of a problem that affects the whole of Europe.

Mikaela Kaime gives her father a disapproving kick from under the table when he laments that if they bring the refugees to town, they will steal his sheep.

The Kaime family has lunch at the Cavo Doro restaurant.

Panayotis Kaime is a well-known cattle rancher in the area and asks the journalist to speak with the diner at the next table, whom he introduces as "Captain Michaelis."

"You are from Spain?

If you are interested in refugees, why don't you take advantage and take the Afghans to Spain? ”, Says this fisherman and neighbor of Sigri.

Mikaela is 16 years old and admits, despite herself, that almost everyone in town thinks like her father and friend.

The Greek government announced last week that it was considering the internment on the ferry of some 1,000 people who are in especially vulnerable conditions.

The authorities have frozen the plan and there is still no final decision on the matter, according to a spokeswoman for UNHCR, the United Nations agency for refugees, responsible for managing the reception of these displaced people on Lesbos.

The Greek Executive this year has had to deal with different moments of tension between the local population and migrants, even with situations of violence by extreme right-wing groups such as those that occurred last March.

Konstantinos Tsiknas does not doubt that if the Migration Ministry decides to transport the refugees to Sigri, its inhabitants and those of the neighboring municipalities will prevent it by cutting off road access.

“They want to bring Somalis and Afghans.

They don't respect anything, they don't paint anything here, ”says Tsiknas.

The name of the restaurant he runs is Australia, in memory of the country his parents emigrated to in the 1970s and where they lived for 20 years.

His son relates that thanks to their emigration, they were able to save and return to Greece to found the restaurant that is now owned by their children.

"Most of Sigri emigrated from Greece, and now the young people are going to Athens," adds Tsiknas.

Tsiknas says that since 2015, when the refugee crisis broke out, the income of his establishment has fallen by 80%.

"The coronavirus pandemic has affected us, of course, but for five years international tourists have stopped coming, and it is because they are afraid of refugees."

Kristina Kaime, Michaela's mother, also says she's scared, but for health reasons.

“If there are sick people, there are no doctors in Sigri.

Will they install a hospital in the town?

Sigri has a museum dedicated to the geological jewel of the region, the fossilized tree beds.

The exhibition center has almost no visitors in these weeks of September, admits the guide and receptionist, Kostas Kutis: “The main reason is the drop in visitors due to the coronavirus, but it is true that the situation with refugees stops many tourists from come to Lesbos ”.

Kutis is from Salonica, where in recent years some of the refugees who are crammed into Moria have been relocated.

Kutis emphasizes that the island has historically been open to foreigners, but concedes that things are changing: “The situation is complex, because it seems that Lesbos is bearing what should be a joint responsibility of Europe, and that is feeding racism. and to the extreme right ”.

Kristina Kaime pauses her opinions over a plate of sardines accompanied by a glass of white wine.

The crisis in Lesbos, he says, affects the entire European Union, but he believes that other countries do not see it that way: “The governments of Europe have chosen us to withstand the pressure.

We accept it, but we are vulnerable.

And in Brussels they decide for us without taking our opinion into account ”.

The truth is that the authorities are doing medical tests to the refugees to see if they are infected with coronavirus before transferring them to more or less permanent locations.

So far, 14 migrants have tested positive for covid-19, but it is feared that there could be many more, given the overcrowding in which they live.

Despite everything, the Greek Executive trusts that in the next "three or four days", all migrants will have been relocated, according to its spokesman.

Only 6% of migrants have moved to the new camp

The new refugee camp that the Greek government is setting up on Lesbos has so far welcomed just over 800 people, according to a spokeswoman for UNHCR in Greece.

This figure represents 6% of the 13,000 ancient inhabitants of the ancient settlement of Moria.

The vast majority of them have camped in the vicinity of a supermarket in Mytilene, the island's capital.

Many of them refuse to move to the new field because they believe that their freedoms will be further limited and because it would be to accept that their stay on the island will be perpetuated even more.

The new internment space will have a limitation on departure times, a restriction that did not exist in the Moria settlement.

The new refugee center is currently equipped for more than 4,000 places.

Unhcr, in charge of managing the migrant camp, confirms that the reception of refugees is progressing slowly and that the camp will increase its capacity as it fills up.

The families who have agreed to stay in these facilities in the last few days come in droppers and regretting that they still cannot have basic resources such as electricity supply.

The Greek Government insists that all of the 13,000 migrants must be admitted to the new facilities, but has not specified how it will face the situation if the majority of the group refuses to accept the transfer.

Last week there were clashes with the police when part of the migrants tried to leave the area where they were camping in the direction of Mytilene.

The security forces established a perimeter around the supermarket to prevent new movements that did not go to the new field.

Neighbors from Moria and Mytilene also blocked the Moria road last week to make it difficult to assist foreigners displaced by the refugee camp fire.

Some of the migrants consulted these days by EL PAÍS assure that they were also attacked by local people.

UNHCR also warned last week of these frictions in a statement: “UNHCR has received reports of tension between people from neighboring towns and asylum seekers trying to reach the city of Mitelene.

Unhcr asks everyone for restraint and restraint ”.