In the period beginning on January 1, and running to the implementation of an agreement between the EU and Turkey intended to limit the number of migrants crossing from that country into Greece, upon arrival, and after a long, arduous walk through mountainous terrain without housing or bathroom facilities, the migrants would arrive in Mytilene where they would be processed and registered.
During this time, Lesvos was nothing more than a transit point for the migrants; a place they would stay for a week or two until they could board a ferry to Athens on the Greek mainland. This situation changed drastically when the aforementioned agreement went into effect, and migrants were no longer permitted to proceed from Lesvos to mainland Greece to seek asylum; rather, from that point on they were first required to have their application approved prior to their travel to Athens or any other European destination.
This resulted in the creation of camps still operating today at which the migrants reside for a period averaging anywhere from 6 to 18 months while their papers are being processed to consider their requests for asylum.
The two main locations of these camps are near the harbor town of Mytilene; namely, Camp Moria and Camp Kara Tepe which, although only designed for a combined capacity of 2,, now together house more than 7, migrants. Today more than 60, migrants remain stranded in Greece as a result of the EU-Turkey Agreement coming into effect in March of , with over half of these being women and children.
Many of these women are pregnant, have infants or young children, are heads of households, or are single women traveling on their own to reunite with family members in other countries. In many cases, these women face extreme difficulties in navigating the asylum process due to low literacy, language barriers and their responsibilities to care for their children that reduce their time and mobility.
