UN secretary general visits Lesvos to see refugee crisis first hand

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited the Greek island of Lesvos on Saturday to see the refugee crisis first hand.

During a meeting with volunteers of Greek NGOs, he complimented them for their efforts to save and help refugees and immigrants on Lesvos island and throughout Greece.

"Your island is an island of peace and your sea is a sea of solidarity," he stressed during his tour across hot spots to discuss the crisis with officials and refugees.

Ban visited the closed Moria accommodation center which hosts migrants and refugees who landed on Lesvos after the implementation of the EU-Turkey deal on March 20 aiming to stem the refugee flow.

Boris Cheshirkov, the spokesperson of UNHCR in Lesvos told Xinhua that the UN secretary general was briefed on the situation and the improvements the authorities have made.

"The UN Refugee Agency's position from the start of the implementation of the agreement was to express concern about the detention of people, but we have seen that lately several refugees are transferred to places like Kara-Tepe", he said.

The open camp of Kara-Tepe hosts over 700 people including groups of the most vulnerable refugees-single parent families, pregnant women and people with mental or physical impairments.

"We didn't make exceptional work for the visit, because the visitors should see a normal day in Kara- Tepe. We don't sell any drama. Democracy and respect are our guidelines," Director of Kara-Tepe Camp Stavros Miroyannis said during Ban's visit.

Refugees living at Kara-Tepe asked the UN secretary general to help them and those left behind at conflict zones.

During talks with Greece's political leadership in Athens on Friday and earlier on Saturday, the UN secretary general reiterated a call to the international community to do more to help refugees.

"The world should be building bridges between people instead of building walls," he said on Friday evening while visiting the Athens Solidarity Center which offers medical, psychological,legal and social services to vulnerable people.

Ban spoke to volunteers, employees and refugees, as well as representatives of international organizations and the board of the NGO "Solidarity Now", which coordinates and supports financially the center.

"The numbers are large. However, this is not a crisis of numbers; it's a crisis of solidarity,"he said, Greek national news agency AMNA reported. Endit