- Tweeter
republish
More than 500 migrants are aboard the "Open Arms" and "Ocean Viking" humanitarian vessels, and no solution for their reception in Europe. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is concerned about this.
On Monday, a Greek minister worried in an interview with the daily Kathimerini about the increase in the number of migrants arriving on the islands near Turkey. " Since July 7, there has not been a single day without arrival, " said the Deputy Minister for the Protection of the Citizen, George Koumoutsakos who calls for more solidarity from the European Union.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirms that overall reception capacity throughout the country is saturated. He also sees an increase in arrivals to the islands near Turkey, where the five European "hot spots" are overcrowded: they are almost triple their capacity.
Share responsibilities
" There are several causes for this situation on the islands, " said Boris Chershirkov, UNHCR spokesman for Greece. First, the increase in the number of arrivals, then the capacity of the islands - 5,400 places in the hot spots - then the procedure of the asylum application, which forms a bottleneck. Finally, there is the question of the country's overall reception capacity. Greece since 2015 has significantly increased its accommodation capacity, there is room for 50,000 people today. There are 26 camps, the UNHCR also has 25,000 apartment lodgings, and then there are people in hotels, and so on. Despite this, Greece has reached its limits. "
UNHCR is therefore relaying Greece's call for more European solidarity . " And one of the reasons is that while the European Union can be commended for the relocation of more than 20,000 people between 2015 and 2017, the fact is that this program has ended for two years and nothing has come to replace it, whereas it is urgent that we have a system of shared responsibility. This is one of our calls to the EU, a strong system for sharing the reception of migrants and the responsibility of Greece. "
More Afghan families
The organization also notes a change in the origin of asylum seekers arriving from Turkey. " What we see this year is that there are fewer Syrians and more Afghan families. Since 2015, most people in Greece have been refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan - Syria being the main country of origin. But recently we see mostly Afghan families. And in general, when we see an increase in the number of people coming from a particular country, it is related to the volatility of the situation and what is happening in that country. This increase reflects the ongoing instability in Afghanistan . "