Feature: Greek pupils on Lesvos island welcome refugee classmates
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E-mail Xinhua, November 29, 2016
Greek pupils on Lesvos island have welcomed the first refugee children who started attending classes in schools this November under a Greek education ministry program, local officials told Xinhua on Monday.
The island, which has received the bulk of the thousands of refugees who have landed on Greece's shores since 2015, has suffered from tensions lately.
Refugees stranded in overcrowded hotspots since spring, when borders to central Europe were closed, are protesting living conditions and locals are demonstrating to demand more support from Athens and European countries.
A deadly fire which killed a six-year-old child and his grandmother inside Moria hotspot last week has fuelled tensions.
Nevertheless, these tensions do not reach the classrooms and the courtyard of the eighth primary school of Mytilene, where twelve minors from six to 12 years old from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran started attending classes in early November.
"They had been looking forward to starting school and are really excited," Pavlos Kalampokis, the principal of school said about the new students who live with their families at the nearby camp of PIKPA.
"Overjoyed, enthusiastic, and inquisitive, the Greek students welcomed their new classmates. They were eager to play and talk to them," he said.
Two Syrian boys aged six and 12 said they had missed the feeling of being a student and were looking forward to hearing the school bell ring again after such a long time and meeting their Greek classmates.
Another 25 refugee children are also attending classes inside the reception hotspots, while over 400 refugee children are expected to attend classes at Lesvos public schools in the coming weeks, according to Aristides Kalargalis, municipal director of education in the Northern Aegean.
The program applies to children of refugees who have requested asylum.
Approximately 6,200 refugees are currently hosted on Lesvos, according to the Greek government's latest estimates. Endit
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