Lesbos' Residents Offer Immigrants Helping Hands

(AFP) - Beautiful beaches, olive groves and green mountains long summed up Greece's third-largest island Lesbos, but this corner of the Aegean Sea also faces an ever-rising tide of migrants reaching its shores. Like Italy's tiny Lampedusa, site of two recent migrant shipwreck tragedies that cost almost 400 lives, Lesbos is a gateway to the European Union and refugee traffic has soared over the past year. But locals are not clamoring for a force field around their home, also known as Emerald Island for its rich greenery of forests and mountain peaks. Over the past few months, the residents of the capital Mytilene and other neighboring communities have given first aid to migrants found wandering on beaches early in the morning or trying to make their way to some village. 'Lesbos is only a thoroughfare for migrants, they all want to leave as soon as possible to get to Athens and then to other countries,' said Nelly Hatzidaki from the Lesbos-based citizens' movement Co-existence and Communication in the Aegean Sea. 'That undoubtedly explains why locals have never been hostile,' she added.

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