Mayor Lilian Stefanakis of Gavdos, Greece’s tiny, southernmost island, has raised the alarm over a sharp rise in migrant arrivals from Libya, warning that the small island lacks the capacity to manage the influx.
Stefanakis described the situation as “a heavy burden” for the island, which has around 70 residents and only a handful of buildings. “We don’t have the capacity to manage these flows,” the mayor said on the radio. “Institutional solutions must be found.”
Gavdos lies south of Crete, about 300 kilometers from the Libyan city of Tobruk. It has increasingly become a target destination for migrant boats directed by human traffickers seeking new routes into the European Union.
According to port police figures, 7,300 migrants have arrived on Crete and Gavdos so far this year. Just last week, 400 immigrants arrived on the island in 24 hours, which overwhelmed authorities handling the influx of asylum seekers.
Crete and Gavdos have no facilities to register asylum seekers. Only emergency shelters are available before the migrants are moved to the Greek mainland.
