Refugees come ashore near the village of Skala Sikamineas on the northern tip of the Greek island of Lesbos after travelling on an inflatable raft from Turkey. After reaching the island they have to walk for 55 kilometres to the town of Mytilini to start the registration process with the Greek authorities. Once they are registered they can board a ferry that will take them to the mainland. Given the very high numbers of arrivals this takes at least one week or more. During this time the living conditions of the refugees are extremely difficult.

Thousands of refugees are coming into Lesbos every day in these last days of summer. Syrians make up for roughly 70% of arrivals.

According to numbers released by the UNHCR so far in 2015 ( July 2015) over 225,000 refugees and migrants have arrived by sea in the Mediterranean and around 2,100 are estimated to have died or gone missing while trying to reach Europe.

Lesbos, Greece. 2015