Greek president visits 1922 Refugee Memory museum, wraps up visit to Lesvos island
Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou drew parallels between the refugees of the Asia Minor disaster of 1922 who arrived on Lesvos and the migrants and refugees of today, during a visit at the Museum of Refugee Memory 1922 in Skala Loutron.
At the site, Sakellaropoulou spoke of the tension with the arrival of the refugees then and "how they managed finally to be overcome and all of us to move ahead." These are "difficult stories, but a challenge also for all of us to retain social cohesion and our humanity and humanitarianism."
Lesvos in particular has a very strong memory of those times and it is important for the third generation to learn about them, she noted. Local society at the time, she said, reacted "and there were difficulties, but [refugees] were integrated at the end, and were accepted, built their homes and lives here, had families and created a rich cultural tradition" on Lesvos.
She cautioned that "not all phenomena are the same, and perhaps they do not produce the same tension," but she added there was always a positive side to problems and they could be managed.
The Greek president was scheduled to return to Athens after the museum visit, wrapping up a six-day holiday on the island.
New Moria health unit
Prior to the museum, Sakellaropoulou paid a visit to the new health unit at the Moria Reception and Identification Center, in the Mytilini region, accompanied by Migration & Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi and Netherlands Ambassador to Greece Stella Ronner-Grubacic, whose country donated the unit.
"Greece was called upon to lift a very heavy load of the migration and refugee issue for all of Europe," the Greek president said, "particularly Lesvos with some other islands." But the new health unit, she underlined, "is proof of European solidarity, which is what we asked from the very start. Europe must realize that it has to support and assume part of this burden."
She also pointed out that local communities on the island should also be supported, particular health facilities such as the Mytilini hospital, by doubling the number of ICU beds now available on the island.
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Migration Minister: New Moria health unit will decongest main hospital