Newsademic British English edition 260

18th February 2016 
N ew sadem ic.com
™
 - British English edition 
page 
10
those trying to get to Greece have 
been living in camps in Turkey for 
several years. Other migrants who 
have been travelling to Greece come 
from Afghanistan, Iraq, Bangladesh, 
and Pakistan. These people hope to 
find jobs in European Union (EU) 
countries and improve their lives.
At first some EU countries 
welcomed the migrants. Angela 
Merkel, the German chancellor, 
declared that her country would ac­
cept 800,000 migrants. N ot every­
body was happy with her decision. 
In 2015 about one million migrants 
travelled to Germany. Many others 
went to Austria and Sweden. Most 
people thought that fewer migrants 
would try to make the journey from 
Turkey during the winter months. 
Yet, at least 2,000 people are still 
landing on Greek islands every day.
NATO se cretary general, Jens Stoltenberg
Germany and most other EU 
countries have now decided to con­
trol the numbers. Now migrants 
arriving in Greece will have to be 
properly registered. Then, they will 
have to stay in Greece while a de­
cision is made about their future. 
Those made homeless by the fight­
ing in Syria may be allowed to move 
to an EU country. Those just hoping 
for a job and a better life are likely 
to be sent back to Turkey.
To get to the Greek islands, the 
migrants pay people smugglers for 
a place on a small boat. Some of 
these boats have sunk. Many people 
have drowned. M ost of the migrants
are young men. Yet some older peo­
ple and couples with children have 
also been making the journey. The 
NATO ships will come from several 
member countries. They will try to 
stop the people smugglers arranging 
these sea crossings. The EU has also 
agreed to pay Turkey a large amount 
of money. This is to be spent on 
improving the refugee, or migrant, 
camps in Turkey. Turkish police of­
ficers have been ordered to stop the 
people smuggling operations.
Camps for the migrants have 
been set up on the Greek islands of 
Kos, Lesbos, Chios, Leros, and Sa­
mos. These are to be used to register 
the migrants that do arrive. Many 
Greeks living on these islands are 
unhappy about the camps. Tradi­
tionally, these places have been pop­
ular with European holidaymakers. 
Many people on the islands work in 
the holiday business. They fear that 
people will no longer want to visit 
their islands, because of the migrant 
problem. □
M