A perilous escape

A perilous escape

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The migrants bolted across a street and clambered over a fence into the Greek port at Patras, scouting around for trucks to stow away in.

Dozens at a time scaled a 2-km stretch of fence one afternoon last week, playing cat-and-mouse with police officers who pushed them back only for the men to try again hours later.

. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis
Migrants climb through a metal fence to enter the departures pier.

They are part of a growing number of migrants in Greece trying daily to smuggle themselves onto ferries at Patras to get to Italy. It's a dangerous passage but it has become more appealing since the closure in 2016 of the overland Balkan route to northern Europe.

A few hundred, mostly young Afghan or Pakistani men, squat in abandoned factories facing the port and shower in water that ran yellow from rusty pipes.

At night, with fewer officers on patrol, a Reuters team witnessed groups breaking into locks to get into trucks or crawling under tarpaulins.

"Get down! Get down from there!" an officer with the coast guard's special forces squad yelled at a man peering at him from the undercarriage of a truck lined up for embarkation control, who was then handcuffed and escorted away.

. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis
A port police officer detains a migrant who was hiding under a truck.

Authorities arrested 760 people hiding in trucks or carrying forged travel documents at Patras in January and February, close to a third of the total of 2,627 arrests in 2017, according to official data. In 2016, 1,040 people were arrested.

Those arrested are held at most overnight before they are released, and many try their luck again the following day.

. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Hellecin Coast Guard
An x-ray shows two migrants hiding among goods inside a truck at the port of Patras.

Images from an X-ray van showed hideouts not visible to the naked eye: two men were discovered lying on their backs in a fuel tank. Another crouched beneath watermelons.

The route from Patras, one of two ports linking Greece to Italy, is not new but when Europe's refugee crisis began in 2015 and nearly a million people landed in Greece on boats, taking the overland road to countries like Germany was a safer option.

. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis
Migrants inside a self-made temporary shelter in a disused factory near the port of Patras.

When those borders closed in March 2016 and a European Union deal with Turkey stranded over 50,000 refugees and migrants in Greece, Patras started buzzing again, said Dimitris Kyriakoulopoulos, a coast guard captain overlooking the port.

“What we're dealing with here is a gradual increase in the number of these people," he said.

. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis
Migrants jump off a truck they were hiding in as Coast Guard officers stand by.

Anger is simmering among truck drivers, who sometimes chase migrants away with sticks, fearing arrest if a stowaway is found among their freight.

One driver, who gave his name as Harry, climbed into his truck to find three migrants hiding among stacks of aluminum last Thursday night.

"It's awful. It doesn't get more awful than this and no one takes responsibility," he said.

. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis
Migrants sit on the roof of a disused building used as shelter, opposite the port of Patras.

No one can say how many migrants make it across. Italian authorities returned 147 people to Greece last year, up from 112 in 2016 and 44 in January and February, according to Greek data.

Italy's Interior Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Across the port in the squat, migrants spoke of their friends who made it to Italy and said they, too, would keep at it despite the risks.

"Everything is dangerous," said Arshad Wardak, 24, from Afghanistan. "You have to go through all the suffering to get into a better place. So this is why everybody is trying."

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Slideshow

Migrants stand behind a metal fence.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

Migrants stand behind a metal fence.

Migrants climb a metal fence to exit the port of Patras.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

Migrants climb a metal fence to exit the port of Patras.

Migrants climb through through a metal fence to exit the departures pier.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

Migrants climb through through a metal fence to exit the departures pier.

A migrant speaks with a port police officer.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

A migrant speaks with a port police officer.

Migrants are gathered outside the port of Patras.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

Migrants are gathered outside the port of Patras.

A migrant runs away from a truck as a Coast Guard officer approaches.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

A migrant runs away from a truck as a Coast Guard officer approaches.

A migrant jumps off a truck.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

A migrant jumps off a truck.

A driver inspects his truck after two migrants tried to hide inside.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

A driver inspects his truck after two migrants tried to hide inside.

A migrant looks out from under a truck as a port police officer waits to detain him.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

A migrant looks out from under a truck as a port police officer waits to detain him.

A port police officer detains a migrant.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

A port police officer detains a migrant.

A port police officer detains a migrant who was hiding under a truck as a K9 dog is restrained by a private security employee.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

A port police officer detains a migrant who was hiding under a truck as a K9 dog is restrained by a private security employee.

A migrant is detained after hiding under a truck.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

A migrant is detained after hiding under a truck.

Migrants gather at the yard of a disused factory near the port of Patras.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

Migrants gather at the yard of a disused factory near the port of Patras.

A migrant has a shower inside a disused factory.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

A migrant has a shower inside a disused factory.

Two migrants run after jumping off a truck they were hiding inside.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

Two migrants run after jumping off a truck they were hiding inside.

Migrants are silhouetted while resting next to the sea as a ferry sails for Italy.
. Patras, Greece. Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis

Migrants are silhouetted while resting next to the sea as a ferry sails for Italy.