An Island of Refugees

Samar paid five hundred dollars to cross from Turkey to the north shore of Lesvos, in Greece, on a flimsy seven-metre dinghy with her two children and sixty-two other people. When she arrived, a Belgian woman took pity on her, and drove Samar and her children to Mytilene, the capital of the island. The drive takes about an hour and a half, on winding mountain roads, and is more than forty miles. Samar was lucky. She had paid less than half what most of the refugees and migrants arriving in Greece today pay, and she didn’t have to walk across Lesvos. Although N.G.O.s and the local government have recently provided buses to transport the migrants, the buses come sporadically. As the refugee population swells, people are trapped for several days in areas where there is no shelter. Many locals won’t take refugees in their cars or taxis, citing a law that makes it illegal to transport unregistered migrants.