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Petition underway to award Nobel Peace prize to Greek islanders for helping refugees

Xinhua, January 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

Global online activism network Avaaz had received more than 218,000 signatures as of Friday for its petition launched mid-November on social media calling for the Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded to the people of the Greek Islands for their role in the refugee crisis over the past year.

"We request that the Nobel Peace Prize be awarded to the people of Lesvos and the volunteers in the islands of the Aegean Sea who embraced the refugees and sent a message of humanity and solidarity that moved the entire planet," read the short letter posted on Avaaz website.

In the letter, which is addressed to the Nobel awards committee and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, the organization stressed that despite the severe economic crisis that has hit Greece since 2009, the locals have done and continue to do everything possible to save the lives of desperate people fleeing war zones.

"Fishermen, housewives, pensioners, teachers are there every day providing safe shelter, warm clothing, water and food, often risking their own lives to save people from the cold waters," read the petition that was started by two respective Avaaz members from Washington and Athens, according to Avaaz's representative in Greece, Spyros Limnaios.

"Their actions shall not go unnoticed, because they are significant contributors to world peace and stability, and are clear examples of love for others in the world," the letter concluded, according to an e-mailed press release from Avaaz Greece.

The goal is to reach at least 250,000 signatures by February so that the petition can be formally submitted to the Nobel awards committee.

Around 850,000 refugees and migrants have reached Greece's shores since January 2015, according to the latest data from the UNHCR. More than 500,000 of those have landed on Lesvos' shores.

Locals on the island that has a population of approximately 80,000 people -- some of them descendants of Greek refugees who left Turkey in the early 20th century due to war -- have struggled to fill in the gaps left by the central government that could not adequately address such a huge challenge. Endit