Refugees Find Hope and Despair on Lesbos

January 20, 2016 | Pulitzer Center

Jeanne Carstensen

Refugees climb out of their dinghy on the shores of Lesbos after having crossed from Turkey, about seven miles away. Image by Tzeli Hadjidimitiou. Greece, 2015.

A view from the hillside above Assos, Turkey, where several smuggling camps are located. Two dinghies filled with refugees are heading toward Lesbos as a Turkish Coast Guard ship looks on. Image by Peter Bouckaert. Greece, 2015.

Syrian refugees and others go to the Basmane neighborhood in Izmir, Turkey, to find smugglers to take them across to one of the Aegean islands. The Sinbad Cafe is a central meeting point. Image by Jeanne Carstensen. Greece, 2015.

Nineteen-year-old Nour from Damascus, Syria, has tea at the Sinbad Cafe in Izmir. He has paid a smuggler and is waiting to be transported to the coast to cross over to Greece. Image by Jeanne Carstensen. Greece, 2015.

Smugglers overload the dinghies with people paying around $1,200. One boat with 50 people is worth 60,000. On the day in October when this photo was taken approximately 5,000 refugees arrived to Lesbos, earning $600,000 for the smugglers— $18,000,000 in one month. Image by Peter Bouckaert. Greece, 2015.

A boat full of refugees arrives in Lesbos. Refugees buy their own life jackets in Turkey but investigations have shown that many of them are fake. Image by Jeanne Carstensen. Greece, 2015.

Volunteers from all over the world have joined with local Greeks to help the refugees when they arrive on Lesbos. Image by Alison Terry-Evans. Greece, 2015.

A doctor and volunteers attend to new arrivals. Image by Jeanne Carstensen. Greece, 2015.

The local municipalities have been overwhelmed by discarded lifejackets, rubber dinghies and other detritus left by the thousands of people walking through their beaches and towns. Image by Jeanne Carstensen. Greece, 2015.

At Moria refugee camp near Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos, refugees recharge their cell phones. Image by Jeanne Carstensen. Greece, 2015.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, Commissioner of Migration for the European Commission, visits Moria refugee camp. Refugees outside the fence protest poor conditions at the camp. Image by Jeanne Carstensen. Greece 2015.

Around 60 percent of the population of Lesbos descends from the Greek refugees who fled Asia Minor in 1922, including these three women from Skala Sykaminia. Image by Alison Terry-Evans. Greece, 2015.

Greek refugees flee Smyrna (Izmir) in 1922 as the city burns. Boats head for Lesbos and other Greek islands. Photo courtesy of "The Pappas Post."

The “grandmothers of Skala Sykaminia,” all daughters of Greek refugees from 1922, have become famous for the help they offer to Syrian refugees. Screenshot from October 20, 2015 article in "The Greek Reporter."

Spanish lifeguards from Proactiva Open Arms plunge into rough seas off Skala Sykaminia, Lesbos, to rescue refugees. Image by Jeanne Carstensen. Greece, 2015.

A Swedish doctor, a local fisherman (carrying the oxygen tank) and other volunteers carry a refugee girl suffering from severe hypothermia to an ambulance in Skala Sykaminia. Image by Jeanne Carstensen. Greece, 2015.

The body of a male refugee lies on the beach in northern Lesbos. Image by Jeanne Carstensen. Greece, 2015.

A group of refugees who have been rescued from a sinking boat in stormy weather wait to hear the fate of their loved ones still trapped inside. In the end, over 60 people died that night. Image by Jodi Hilton. Greece, 2015

An Imam (far left) speaks with Greek Orthodox priests after an interfaith service on Lesbos held to mourn the deaths of refugees as Spyros Galinos, mayor of Lesbos, looks on. Image by Jeanne Carstensen. Greece, 2015.

A Syrian refugee woman in Chios, Greece, enjoys smoking her hookah. Image by Jeanne Carstensen. Greece, 2015.

The arrival of over 500,000 refugees to the Greek island of Lesbos from nearby Turkey in 2015 has turned the eastern shores into a humanitarian crisis zone. The Greek government, residents, local and international NGOs and volunteers have come together to care for arrivals as best they can. For many locals, the situation recalls the arrival of thousands of Greek refugees from Asia Minor in 1922.