Coast guard who rescued thousands of refugees honored at port

A section of the port on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos is being named after Kyriakos Papadopoulos, the late coast guard officer who distinguished himself during the peak of the refugee crisis in 2015 and 2016 and was credited with more than 5,000 rescues.

The decision to rename a stretch of the port in the main town of Mytilene was reached by the Interior and Shipping ministries, following an initiative by the Lesvos Municipal Port Fund.

Papadopoulos, a native of Lesvos, died of a heart attack last October at the age of 44.