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Afghan migrants on the island of Lesbos on September 2, 2019. REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis

On the Greek island of Lesbos, the United Nations and locals are worried about the great intensification of migratory flows for three months.

With our special correspondent in Lesbos, Pavlos Kapantais

All actors present in Lesbos, local or international, sound the alarm. " In July, there were 2,400 people who arrived, " said Astrid Castelein, the UNHCR representative in Lesbos. In August, there were 4,200, so double the month of July when it was already the highest figure since the signing of the declaration between the European Union and Turkey ".

Turkey is home to nearly five million refugees and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly threatens to let them pass to Greece, which worries the residents of Lesbos. " Erdogan threatens us, we see on TV: he says that if he does not receive more money from the European Union, he will send us a million refugees who are in Istanbul, launches Thanassis Marmarinos . Where are all these people going to live? There is no infrastructure, and tomorrow it will be winter. Where will they live? We have nowhere to put them! "

An economy in great difficulty

A new, large-scale crisis could put the island's economy already on its knees, already badly affected by the 2015 crisis . " The 2015 refugee crisis has reduced tourist arrivals in 2016 by 60 %. We are afraid that a repetition of the phenomenon has the same effect on tourism, and we are very worried, "says Vagelis Myrsonias, president of the Chamber of Commerce of the island.

Faced with all these challenges, the island and its inhabitants are hoping for a solution. But after four years on the front line of the migration crisis, they expect the worst.