I am outraged (yet again) at the spending priorities of this government. While the UK is spending £22m to prevent a relatively small number of desperate people from seeking asylum in the UK (Calais crisis: British police to be deployed to target people-smuggling, 20 August), I am on Agathonisi, an idyllic Dodecanese island 10 miles off the Turkish coast, with a population of 180, which is hosting hundreds of refugees. While the big islands, Kos and Lesbos, get all the attention, the plight of the small islands is ignored.Every day hundreds of refugees, mostly Syrian, arrive on the shores of the island. The islanders are sympathetic to their plight and give them food, drink and clothing, but there are no facilities to provide for such large numbers. Continue reading...
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