UN urges EU to step in and help Greece with migrant crisis

http://www.ekathimerini.com/199278/article/ekathimerini/news/un-urges-eu-to-step-in-and-help-greece-with-migrant-crisis



UN urges EU to step in and help Greece with migrant crisis
14:21

The United Nations refugee agency said on Friday that Greece urgently needed help to cope with 1,000 migrants arriving each day and called on the European Union (EU) to step in before the humanitarian situation deteriorates further.

More than 77,000 people have arrived by sea to Greece so far this year, more than 60 percent of them Syrians, with others fleeing Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea and Somalia, it said.

"The volatile economic situation, combined with the increasing numbers of new arrivals, is putting severe strain on small island communities," William Spindler of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told a briefing.

Local authorities on islands including Lesvos, where the situation is "particularly dire", are unable to handle the massive flow, he said, while noting that most refugees move on through Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Serbia and Hungary after registering with Greek police.