More than 1,000 migrants arrived on the Ierapetra coastline in Crete in just over a week, and local authorities have no ...

More than 1,000 migrants arrived on the Ierapetra coastline in Crete in just over a week, and local authorities have no adequate facilities to house them. From October 10 to last Tuesday, at least 17 boats reached the area, with nine landing directly on shore and the rest intercepted by Frontex drones and coast guard vessels dozens of nautical miles out at sea. Arrivals on Crete have now exceeded 19,000 this year. Most arriving migrants are nationals of Bangladesh, Sudan, and Somalia, the majority young men between 20 and 30, with women making up roughly 20% of those coming ashore. Local authorities resorted to housing more than 1,000 people in an open-air municipal lot outside Ierapetra used to park garbage trucks. Twelve tents on site were not nearly enough, and when rain hit, people took shelter underneath the trucks themselves. On Tuesday night, four empty lorry trailers were parked on the lot to serve as makeshift cover. Migrants had access to just five or six portable toilets and washed themselves and their clothes from a garden hose. Municipal workers refused to enter their own covered workshop after migrants were moved in overnight over hygiene concerns. Ierapetra's deputy mayor for civil protection, Giorgos Kougioumtzakis, described the conditions as miserable, adding that both the migrants and the town's residents want them gone. Migrants were eventually bused to a temporary reception centre in Agia, Chania, with 211 still remaining there as of Friday October 16. The ministry said all would be relocated by Sunday. The route is fueled in part by a Libyan criminal network. Migrants described a "mafia" that kidnaps people off the street, beats them, and holds them prisoner until families pay a ransom. The Greek coast guard has sent a liaison officer to Benghazi in an attempt to pressure Libyan authorities to curb the departures, though migrants who survived the crossing offered little confidence the pressure will work. #Crete #Migration #Greece