Almost six years into seeing hordes of refugees and migrants land on the island, some parents on Lesbos don’t want children of those in detention camps and apartments being in the same classrooms with their children.

It happened in the village of Ippeio, said Kathimerini, the parents not wanting nine refugee children to be taught in a school there, five boys and four girls from Afghanistan and Syria.

Their families are living in apartments provided by Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) but after initially welcoming refugees and migrants, residents on the island have grown weary of them.

“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 the paper.

The parents claimed the refugee students are 25 years old but the certificates with which the refugees were officially registered in the Panhellenic school network state their birth dates to be between 2005 and 2008.

Still, the protesting parents hung banners against them and some local pupils have refused to be in classrooms with them. There was no word on whether the Education Ministry would intervene.

There are about 12,500 refugees and migrants living in a tent city called Kara Tepe that was built hastily after a fire set by protesters against COVID-19 measures in the former Moria camp burned it down.