Low prices, empty restaurants and quiet beaches. "Samos in Greece has turned into a ghost island due to the media, not due to the refugees" according to residents on the island of Samos. Last year's news has been full of reports about refugee drownings in the Meditterean Sea and a lot of this news focused on the situation on the Greek islands. The Greek islands are a short-distance crossing from Turkey to the Europian Union. The island of Samos is the closest one, located three kilometers offshore the west coast of Turkey.
Photo of an empty street in Pirgos, Samos
Last summer, anytime I told my friends I was going to visit Samos they started to laugh at me. Most of the time a typical reaction like a "Good Luck", "Volunteering? or: "Won't you be bothered by the refugees?" followed. We were a bit curious before we arrived in Samos. Despite the fact that I think this whole refugee thing is terrific, I wasn't up to be confrontated with it during my holidays. I mean, would you be? But believe me, nowadays only once in a while refugees arrive ashore on Samos. Did you know refugee flows are now well managed by the Turkish government? New refugees are being registrated and guided on their way to Europe (Greece) to avoid further drownings. The refugee flow has reduced by 90% and nowadays the situation is stable.
"The Turkey deal did slow the flow of migrants to roughly 40 arriving in Samos each week, down from 4,000 a week at the peak of the crisis last September and October, but the asylum system has not been able to process the claims as quickly as the commission had hoped, and very few people have actually been returned to Turkey." source (click here)
Refugee camp in Samos City
A total of 900 refugees are nowadays waiting in the camps to hear whether, when and where they will be allowed to go. Most refugees are distributed over different countries and one-third of them are children. The Greek islanders have fully contributed to help the refugees. They have collected money, clothing and food. The situation is considered to be stable.
I was a bit worried at first, and unfortunately, that's the way many other tourists think. The impacts of this attitude have been disastrous to the islanders whom mainly depend on the touristic sector. Samos mainly suffers a decrease of tourists from the Netherlands, UK, Belgium and Germany. Scandinavians and Italians are still visiting because their media has been less focused on the news and situation in Samos. The owner of one of the restaurants tells us that the media has turned Samos into a ghost town. She superstitiously knocks on the table as she states to be one of the few luckier owners that still have quite good business this year. Most restaurants, appartments and bars on Samos now attract less than half as much tourists compared to other years.
The peculiar thing is how most people on the island blame the media. They say that the media has blown the whole refugee situation which has resulted into a critical reduction of visits to the island.
From my own perspective, during our visit to Samos we have had a great time. The refugee situation is stable and even imperceptible and the decreased tourism has led to an increase of discounts on touristic activities. After all, I believe it's a good thing to visit and support these islands in bad times and it's even in your own advantage! Often, people are rather not confrontated with such a situation but in this case it won't affect you negatively but even positively. I'd advice anyone to support the Greek tourism and see through the media imaged situation. This might convince you!
GoPro snorkelling on Balos Beach, Samos
Balos Beach, Samos
Mount Kerkis in Kambos Bay, Samos
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