»The truth may be bitter, but it must be told« 4. Patras – Gateway to Western Europe? Our mission included a stay in the coastal city of Patras, which is the location of the biggest ferry port to Italy.44 Near Patras harbour, we met a group of young people whom we had already met in prison on Lesbos. situated outside Patras, on the banks of a small river that people use for washing. As far as we could see there was no running water and no sanitary provision. In the meantime, they had managed to leave Lesbos and reach Patros, travelling via Athens. Just like hundreds of others, they were waiting here for a chance to reach Italy or any other European country. The group were pleased to see us, and when we invited them for a bite to eat we could see that the refugees in the port were in a pretty bad state. Many were quite simply starving. Young Afghanis approached us by the dozen. We organised some emergency food supplies at the nearest snack bar. At first, the people in the camp greeted us with mistrust. They appeared disturbed and quite clearly in need of support. During our conversations with them, it transpired that the refugees were totally unaware of their position in relation to European asylum law and, in particular, the Dublin II procedure. Among the group of refugees were several who, even according to the restrictive rules of the European allocation system, would have had a good chance of obtaining a legal right to stay or to an asylum procedure in another European country. It was not simply hunger that caused them to despair. Several refugees bore the signs of serious injury. We visited the camp – tolerated by the authorities – that consisted for the most part of makeshift huts. It is The people from the camp were trying to get into the off-limits port area. They wanted to reach Italy on one of the ferries. Sometimes they tried to get on board by clinging to lorries. Again, we heard of abuse by the Greek Patras: unsheltered refugees at a river, which serves as the only water supply 28 Patras – Gateway to Western Europe?