In all the column inches on the crisis, one point has barely received a mention: the overwhelming majority of Syrian refugees are not in camps but urban centres My recent visit to Lesbos in Greece gave me a clear sense of just how much European towns and cities are struggling to cope with this refugee crisis. The capital of the Greek island has a population of 30,000 – and had just registered 15,000 refugees_ en masse_ in order to get them on to ferries heading to the mainland. Until then thousands of people, predominately refugees fleeing the war in Syria, had been sleeping rough in public parks, or in tents in parking bays at the main port. The crisis in Europe pales in comparison to the experiences of towns and cities in the Middle East. There are more Syrian refugees in Istanbul alone than there are in the rest of Europe. In Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, the arrival of refugees has sometimes doubled the size of hosting towns. Despite this, municipal authorities are under intense pressure to carry on providing services that residents have come to expect, while also extending these to refugees, with little or no increase in resources. Continue reading...
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