'Like a Prison': Greek Island Flooded by Migrants

An estimated 20,000 refugees and migrants are backed up on a Greek island of Lesbos, their first staging point in a journey from Syria and elsewhere towards a new life in the European Union. 

Among the people caught in the limbo are a police officer, cardiologist and a former political prisoner, NBC News reported. Despite appalling conditions — thousands are sleeping on the street in 100 F heat, — authorities have slowed the process of getting off the island by insisting on bureaucracy.

Nobody has been allowed to leave without the right paperwork, yet police on Monday removed temporary registration centers at the port and a refugee camp.

"This place is like a prison," cardiologist Qutaiba Taleb from the Syrian capital of Damascus told NBC News. "We have been here seven days. We are not homeless, we are country-less. We just want to find a better life in Germany."

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