Local volunteers on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos emphasized that no matter how many times unknown perpetrators vandalize the small chapel of St. Catherine, they will return to restore it to its former self.
A statement on the volunteers’ FB page emphasizes that “…for every ten times they destroy it, we will repair it 100 times.” The post was accompanied by photographs of the fully restored chapel.
The Orthodox place of worship lies close to the Moria hotspot on the island, where thousands of third country nationals, most from predominately Muslim countries, are temporarily hosted while their asylum requests are processed.
All of the third country nationals – ranging from sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, the Middle East and as far east as Bangladesh – landed or were ferried to the isle by migrant smuggling rings operating from the opposite Turkish coast. Most of the undocumented migrants and would-be asylum seekers illegally entered Greece from Turkey, a safe country, in a bid to reach preferred destinations in central and western Europe.