Molyvos

A Greek Village's Heroic Response to the Global Refugee Crisis

John Webb

• Publisher: Potomac Books
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781640125704
• eBook ISBN:
  9781640126091
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: Social Sciences

Molyvos, a small seaside village once home to fishermen and shepherds but now a popular summer vacation destination, sits on the northern shore of the Greek island of Lesvos along a four-mile-wide stretch of the Aegean Sea, which separates Greece from Turkey. In the summer of 2015 Molyvos became an epicenter of the mass migration of some 450,000 refugees, mainly Syrians, Afghans, and Iraqis, who crossed from Turkey, fleeing war and brutal dictatorships in their home countries in search of safety in the European Union.

In Molyvos John Webb chronicles the dramatic and fearless efforts of a small band of people who carried out a homemade yet full-fledged, around-the-clock rescue operation until international NGOs began to arrive. Between November 2014 and September 2015, Melinda McRostie, owner of a restaurant in Molyvos’s harbor, her family, and a small group of their friends, as well as Eric and Philippa Kempson, a skeleton coast guard crew, some local fishermen, and eventually summer tourists provided relief. During those months, they had no help from the outside—not from Greece, which was already mired in a serious fiscal crisis, not from the EU, which was struggling with its own economic and political issues, and not from any international aid organizations.

Webb provides detailed accounts of refugees crossing the Mytilene Strait in both quiet and rough, frigid waters in boats on the verge of sinking. The Kempsons learned to guide the boats ashore and handled tragic landings in dangerous surf. Ordinary residents of Molyvos rescued thousands of refugees and offered them clothes, food, shelter, and counseling about where they could travel next in their search for safety and asylum. As the tourism industry suffered, a backlash began against the migrants and locals who were helping them, leading to discord in the community. Still, as the ranks of refugees swelled, the volunteer corps in Molyvos expanded its capacity to help.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Epigraph
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Prologue: Introduction to the Story of Molyvos
• 1. Inescapable Memories and an Uncertain Future: April 2018
• 2. The Tide of Refugees Began as a Trickle: November 2014
• 3. In the Harbor and on the Beach: Midwinter 2015
• 4. The Refugees: Their Origins and Their Perilous Journeys to Molyvos
• 5. The Kempsons Are Still Alone on the Beach: Spring and Summer 2015
• 6. Enduring the Screams of Desperation: The Coast Guard at Sea and Melinda in the Harbor
• 7. The Situation in the Harbor Worsens: May 2015
• 8. Locals and Tourists: How They Felt about the Refugees and What They Did . . . at First
• 9. The Situation in Molyvos Goes Out of Control: Summer 2015
• 10. A Long, Hot Summer: The Death March and the Caravan
• 11. Skala Sykaminias: The Crisis Spreads
• 12. The Parking Lot by the School: August and September 2015
• 13. The Starfish Foundation: September and October 2015
• 14. Oxy Refugee Transit Camp: October through December 2015
• 15. The Calamitous Shipwreck: October 28, 2015
• 16. Blessings and Burdens: Volunteers and the NGOs in Molyvos
• 17. Cleaning the Beaches and Weathering the Community’s Bitterness: Fall and Winter 2015
• 18. Oxy Closes: December 2015
• Epilogue: Reflections on the Story of Molyvos
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About John Webb