They had been looking forward to a relaxing three week holiday on an island in the Aegean, but instead a British couple have found themselves helping refugees, scanning the sea for signs of the black dinghies that bring them across from the coast of Turkey.
Mike Priddy and Annette Postill Photo: EDDIE MULHOLLAND
Mike Priddy and Annette Postill felt compelled to offer their help
after realising that the picturesque fishing village of Molyvos that
they had chosen for their summer holiday, on the island of Lesbos, was one of the main landing spots for the thousands of refugees trying to reach Greece.
On their way they pass the British couple, who hand out large bottles of water and provide information to the often bewildered arrivals.
"We've been asked 'which country are we in now?' Others know that they have landed in Greece but think they are close to Athens. They have no idea where Lesbos is," said Ms Postill, 51.
"I think that if I was in their situation, I would probably try to reach Europe too. There are camps for refugees in Jordan and places like that but there is no work, nothing to do."
Mr Priddy said many of the refugees they encountered were educated people. "We've met robotic engineers, a lawyer who helped prosecute Saddam Hussein, a doctor who spent 10 years in the UK, people who can speak three European languages."
The couple used to live in Birmingham but are now based in The Hague, where Mr Priddy works in data archives. "We're economic migrants," he joked.
After spending a night or two sleeping under tarpaulins on a scrap of waste ground in Molyvos, some refugees manage to find buses to take them 40 miles south to Lesbos's main port, Mytilini.
There they have to be registered by the authorities, giving their name, age, occupation and other details, after which they can board ferries to Athens, from where they will head north through Greece, Macedonia, and Serbia into Hungary – an EU state.
But the buses are few and far between, and many walk the whole way – taking two days or more to complete the gruelling trek along sun-baked roads, often carrying babies in slings and toddlers on their back.
"I don't understand how they can allow women with months-old babies to be allowed to walk the whole way, in this heat," said Ms Postill.
Rather than spend their days lounging by the
pool or seeing local sites, they have been watching the coast for
approaching inflatables, most of which are equipped with outboard
motors.
They spend the day on a
dusty clifftop track about an hour's walk from the village, with just a
single deck chair and a faded sun umbrella. Beside them is an enormous
pile of discarded life jackets and deflated rubber dinghies – detritus
from one of the key points in Europe's deepening migration crisis.
When the refugees wade ashore, they start trudging up the six mile long dirt track towards Molyvos. On their way they pass the British couple, who hand out large bottles of water and provide information to the often bewildered arrivals.
"We've been asked 'which country are we in now?' Others know that they have landed in Greece but think they are close to Athens. They have no idea where Lesbos is," said Ms Postill, 51.
"I think that if I was in their situation, I would probably try to reach Europe too. There are camps for refugees in Jordan and places like that but there is no work, nothing to do."
Mr Priddy said many of the refugees they encountered were educated people. "We've met robotic engineers, a lawyer who helped prosecute Saddam Hussein, a doctor who spent 10 years in the UK, people who can speak three European languages."
The couple used to live in Birmingham but are now based in The Hague, where Mr Priddy works in data archives. "We're economic migrants," he joked.
After spending a night or two sleeping under tarpaulins on a scrap of waste ground in Molyvos, some refugees manage to find buses to take them 40 miles south to Lesbos's main port, Mytilini.
There they have to be registered by the authorities, giving their name, age, occupation and other details, after which they can board ferries to Athens, from where they will head north through Greece, Macedonia, and Serbia into Hungary – an EU state.
But the buses are few and far between, and many walk the whole way – taking two days or more to complete the gruelling trek along sun-baked roads, often carrying babies in slings and toddlers on their back.
"I don't understand how they can allow women with months-old babies to be allowed to walk the whole way, in this heat," said Ms Postill.
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