2016-08-19nytimes.com

Today the migrants have mostly stopped coming. The coastline, once littered with orange life vests and wrecked boats, has been cleaned to a near-spotless white. But the human drama has left an imprint here, and across all of Lesbos, in ways that have only begun to play out.

The village is nearly empty of tourists this year as Germans, Swedes and other visitors who had long flocked to the crystalline waters of Lesbos go elsewhere, wary of spending their vacations in a place now associated with human desperation.

...

"The whole village is proud of what we did," said Theano Laoumis, who helps run the To Kyma taverna. On the taverna's beach, refugee dinghies had landed in an unceasing stream. "You didn't know who to save first, there were so many people. But we did save them. It was only natural. That should bring good publicity, not bad."

The drop in business has hit Lesbos as Greece has struggled to emerge from a lengthy economic crisis. Some are bitter that the refugee tide has added to their woes.



Comments: Be the first to add a comment

add a comment | go to forum thread