by On the tiny Greek island of Gavdos, a speck on the blue horizon of the Mediterranean Sea, there are only four children.
Three of those children belong to Efi Georgaka, who earns a living keeping bees, raising sheep, pigs and goats, and working in the ferry ticket office in the small harbor of the island.
It means almost all year round sunshine, empty roads and long sandy beaches. Until now, that is.
Europe’s southernmost point, Gavdos, itself at the forefront of the migration crisis, is emerging as the latest target for people-smuggling gangs.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 1,000 migrants have arrived by boat, many of them departing from Tobruk on the Libyan coast.
The numbers may be modest but the impact on such a small island is huge. Last week, 91 migrants arrived in one day, easily more than the islanders.
“If things continue like this, the island will change, I know it,” said Ms Georgaka, who has lived on the island for 16 years.
“Police and coast guard officers and the navy will be needed, as on the other Greek islands. We don’t want them here. We cherish our freedom and peace. Everybody knows everybody.”
One of the most remote pieces of land in Greece, Gavdos has no facilities or personnel to deal with the small boats that arrive, apart from two council employees and one police officer.
Lefteris Lougiakis, the island’s deputy mayor, has asked for help from the government in Athens. Extra food and blankets have arrived, but not much else. He fears the situation will get much worse.
“I think there will be a lot more boats this summer. It is easy for the migrants to come here – there is no Frontex [the EU border agency], with no navy or coast guard to stop them. People on the island are worried that we will be like Lampedusa – that we will be overflowing with migrants.”
The route is longer and more dangerous than the crossing from Tunisia to the Italian island of Lampedusa, but that has not stopped smugglers from promoting it as the latest way to enter Europe by the back door. There is good money to be made: each migrant pays up to $5,000 for the crossing.
In a alarming European signal about the prospect of mass migration from Egypt, EU leaders on Sunday pledged a €7.4 billion funding package for Cairo.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission, and the prime ministers of Greece, Italy, Austria and Belgium announced the deal, which is aimed at reducing the flow of migrants as well as stimulating economic development, as well as the president of Cyprus. Of the total sum promised, €200 million is to manage migration.
“We must prevent the opening of new migration routes and we will work closely with Egypt to ensure that this is achieved,” said Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece’s prime minister.
Gavdos has emerged as a new migrant destination due to pressures elsewhere, mainly crackdowns on migrant boats by the Greek coastguard and Frontex in the Aegean.
The hard policies being pursued in Italy by Giorgia Meloni, who has spent a lot of political capital to stop the boats coming from North Africa, may also be a factor.
Ms Meloni’s government hopes its plans to divert migrants picked up in the Mediterranean to camps in Albania will act as a strong deterrent.
The migration route is a well organized operation
The inhabitants of Gavdos, which covers barely 11 square miles, fear that their unique way of life is under threat.
There are only about 70 of them, and when you reach the island by ferry from the south coast of Crete, it feels like stepping back in time to a Greece that is light years away from the bling and hedonism of Mykonos or the row – selfie-snapping tourism. of Santorini.
The “capital” of the island is the village of Kastri, a collection of about a dozen houses on a ridge. The other main settlement, Sarakiniko, consists of a few jerry-built cottages and pubs hidden among the dunes and facing a huge beach. There are no taxis on the island and it is impossible to rent a car or moped, at least in the winter months.
Although the transfer route is relatively new, it is a well-organized operation.
The majority of migrants are teenage men and boys, although other nationalities have declined, including Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Syrians and Sudanese.
They always land on Tripiti beach, an undeveloped bay at the southern end of the island with turquoise shallows reminiscent of the South Pacific.
From there they have to walk a stony path for about three miles to the small coastal settlement of Korfos, which has a closed pub and a few houses.
The trail, which goes through the stunted pine forest, is littered with abandoned clothes, half-eaten packets of biscuits, water bottles and juice boxes with Arabic writing on them. There are clear signs that the migrants have rested in the shade beneath ancient junipers and gnarled pines.
From Korkos, they are taken to the island’s port and transported to Crete or mainland Greece.
“Some of them told me that they were kept in prison conditions in Libya before they made the crossing,” said Vasilis Amvrosiadis, the only doctor on the island, who treated the arrivals. “When they arrive, almost all of them have dermatological problems like scabies.
“They come over in little boats. The locals are surprised because they consider such boats completely unsuitable for a long crossing.
“All the boats reach Tripiti beach. It’s a routine now, they know exactly where to go. But there is no means on the island to receive these large numbers. I call Gavdos the Spitzbergen in southern Europe. It is remote and difficult to provide.”
There is great concern among the islanders that the influx of migrants could damage tourism, with the season due to start at Easter. That coincides with warmer weather and calmer seas, which are likely to encourage more migrant crossings from Libya.
‘If tourists hear about this, they will be afraid to come’
“If we miss out on the summer season, we’ll go crazy,” said Stella Stefanaki in the small bakery she runs inside the island. Sliding a tray of cheese and spinach pies into the oven, she is not convinced that the funding deal announced in Cairo at the weekend will solve the crisis.
“Europe gave Egypt millions to stop the boats but what happens when the money runs out? The boats will start coming again. I heard that 20,000 Egyptians are waiting to make the crossing. How can we tackle that?” she said.
“People are worried, they want a quick solution,” said Yorgos Louyiakis, who runs a pub called The Four Brothers that looks out over a wide sandy beach and an indigo sea on Crete’s snowy mountains to the north.
“It affects people’s sense of security and their businesses. If tourists hear about the migrants, they will be afraid to come to Gavdos. Everyone here is worried about the summer tourist season.”
