Refugee presence at school on Lesvos draws local ire

Parents in the village of Ippeio on the Aegean island of Lesvos are protesting the attendance of nine refugee children at the local school.

Friday was supposed to be the second day for the five boys and four girls from Afghanistan and Syria, who live in apartments provided by NGOs. 

“We followed all the legal registration procedures and we also had the consent of the Teachers’ Association. It is not provided by law to ask the parents of the community if they agree,” the school principal, Nikos Simou, told Kathimerini.

For their part, parents have argued that the youngsters are 25 years old, while a banner hung outside the school on Friday by protesters said as much. What’s more, some local pupils have abstained from going to school.

However, the certificates with which the refugees were officially registered in the Panhellenic school network state their birth dates to be between 2005 and 2008.