MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Nikitas Kanakis, who heads the Greek department of the medical aid group, lauded Greece for the overall absence of “serious” anti-migrant incidents.
"We were positively surprised that the main feeling of the Greek people toward the refugees is solidarity," Kanakis said Tuesday. "Most of us have a grandfather or a grandmother who was a refugee, therefore we understand perfectly well what is going on," he underscored.
With a high concentration of migrants fleeing homelands in the Middle East and North Africa in hopes of gaining asylum in the European Union, Greece has seen sporadic clashes between the public and authorities with the newly arrived migrants.
Authorities said the 17- and 19-year-olds had been charged with criminal offenses, including weapons and explosives violations, causing bodily harm, as well as racism.
The EU external border agency Frontex said on Tuesday over 23,000 migrants had arrived in Greece by sea last week, making an up to 50-percent rise on the previous week.
Greek aid agencies resort to general medical assistance to the traumatized or sick migrants coming to Greece due to an overwhelming number of new arrivals, Kanakis said.
"Due to the huge number, the only thing we can do is street medicine," Nikitas Kanakis said. Although most migrants arriving in Greece daily do not have major health problems, Kanakis said those who had to either walk for days or cross the Aegean Sea are suffering from what he termed the "refugee disease."
"We try to serve the needs that they have, but it is not real medical control because a doctor needs to see 50-60 people per day," Kanakis argued.
The president of the Greek department of Doctors of the World said his organization provides migrants with basic necessities like hygiene kits "so that they continue their trip to Europe safely."
