“Almost 1,200 migrants – some crammed onto overcrowded inflatable dinghies – have been picked up by Greek authorities in the eastern Aegean Sea in the past two days,” correspondents for the British newspaper Daily Mail Jenny Stanton and Mario Ledwith mentioned in their article published on Tuesday. Although the article is intended to highlight the plight of refugees arriving in Dodecanese islands from neighboring Turkey, it mainly focuses on the island of Kos, a popular tourist destination for UK teens. According to the British newspaper, “after Italy, financially crippled Greece is the main destination for refugees, mostly from war-ravaged Syria plus economic migrants seeking a better life in the EU” with the total new arrivals exceeding 30,000 this year. Kos is situated approximately two miles from the southwestern Turkish region of Bodrum and the journey from the Turkish port to the Greek holiday island takes around 20 minutes. In order for the desperate migrants to cross the Aegean Sea in search for a better life, up to 800 euros should be paid to smugglers for a place on a boat. In their article, Stanton and Ledwith expressed their opinion that “this influx will fuel fears that Greece could unleash a wave of economic migrants to travel to Britain and the rest of Europe.” “Greek politicians have threatened to hand travel papers to vast numbers of people, including 10,000 migrants held in detention centers, in the row over EU austerity measures,” the journalists mentioned, while they continued saying that the proximity of the country to Turkey has caused serious concern that jihadis could use this route to get into Europe. They did not also hesitate to add that “it is feared that some of the people trafficking gangs are linked to IS, with smuggling fees used to fund the group’s terrorism.”
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