The attitude to refugees of the Greek people on Lesvos

Sadly many people in the UK are reluctant to welcome refugees. We wondered how the local people here felt having seen hundreds of thousands passing through and a good number settling.

The answer is to be found in the 1920s when many Greek families had to flee Turkey and make the same crossing to Lesvos. The descendants of those refugees hold the memory of what it was like and so they understand what those from Syrian, Afganistan and others are going through. They would have crossed in much safer boats; not the inflatable craft certified for 30 typically carrying 50 or more. They would also not have been ripped off by smugglers or hounded by coastguards.

When Maggie went to the hospital, the doctors who treated her asked how they too could volunteer. The woman in whose holiday accommodation we are staying is full of sympathy for the refugees and of support for the volunteers. She is, though, certain that a political solution must be found.

Talking to fellow volunteers, the view is certainly that what we are doing is a 'sticking plaster' and what is needed is an end to the violence and then massive western investment to make those beatuftiful countries, from which people have fled, places where they would want to live.

It is not easy. Tourist bookings are way down. In fact most of the island is unaffected and still the beautiful place people have been coming to for years. Perhaps it also needs to be said that the refugees are people like us, many are poorer that is true, but just as wonderful.

My friend, Gael Lewis, adds this:
.Back in Blighty, last bulletin from the the EU border. I asked a Greek lady on lesbos whether the lesbosians were for or against the refugees (the island is trashed in places by their presence and tourism is down ) she said they were overwhelmingly sympathetic, I asked why. She said it was partly because half of them had been refugees themselves (nearly a century ago many thousands of Turkish speaking orthodox Christians were expelled to the Greek islands in exchange for a similar number of Greek speaking muslims who were forced over to turkey) these wonderful Greek people haven't forgotten . It's also because the islanders are pretty decent people