Greek Islanders Who Received 900,000 Syrian Refugees To Be Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize

Most of the 900,000 refugees who entered Europe last year were received by the inhabitants of the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. Many had given up their livelihoods to rescue people from the sea.

Academics from Oxford, Princeton Harvard, Cornell and Copenhagen are writing a submission that states that the people of Lesbos, Kos, Chíos, Samos, Rhodes and Leros deserve to win the prize. Though the nomination letter is not yet finalized, the as-yet-unnamed academics will attempt to persuade the Nobel committee to accept the nomination.

The Greek minister for migration, Yiannis Mouzalas, offered the Greek government’s full backing for the initiative.

Over 280,000 people have also signed a petition in favor of the nomination.

“On remote Greek islands, grandmothers have sung terrified little babies to sleep, while teachers, pensioners and students have spent months offering food, shelter, clothing and comfort to refugees who have risked their lives to flee war and terror,” reads the petition.

The image of Antonis Deligiorgis (pictured above), a 34-year-old Greek army sergeant who rescued an Eritrean refugee, serves as an example and illustrates the heroism of the islanders.

According to Spyro Limneos, a Greek activist who distributed aid, “the people involved in the solidarity networks organised and helped the desperate when the governments weren’t even willing to recognize that there was a crisis. By opening their hearts the islanders sent a powerful message that humanity is above races, above nations. I will never forget seeing young girls being rescued from a boat on Leros. They were smiling. They didn’t have suitcases or any possessions except their end-of-year school certificates written in Arabic. They laid those down in the sun to dry out. It was a combination of tragedy and hope.”

Sources: The Guardian, Independent

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