Another 100,000 migrants will arrive in Greece by the end of the month, European Commissioner on migration Dimitris Avramopoulos warned on Saturday.
“Hundreds are arriving on a daily basis and Greece is expected to receive another 100,000 by the end of the month,” Avramopoulos told a conference in Athens, two days ahead of the crucial European Union summit on the refugee crisis with the participation of Turkey.
European leaders are expected to press Ankara to take back more economic migrants from Greece and reduce the flow of people across the Aegean Sea.
About 50,000 refugees are currently stranded in Greece – according to a Red Cross estimate issued on Sunday – as Europe faces the greatest migration crisis in six decades. A series of border restrictions on the migrant trail from Austria to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia caused a bottleneck on Greek soil. The refugees, desperate to move to Germany and Scandinavia, are trapped in Greece, with many of them living under bad conditions.
Around a third of migrant buildup in Greece is at the Idomeni crossing, on the country’s northern border with non-EU member FYROM.
Volunteer groups have sounded the alarm, reporting food and tent shortages and deteriorating hygiene.
Apostolos Tzitzikostas, regional governor of Greece’s Central Macedonia prefecture, told Skai television on Saturday that his region is in a state of emergency, claiming that 20,000 refugees are stranded in the region.
“In a few weeks,” the EU will announce a revision of its asylum regulations to ensure a “fairer distribution of the burden and the responsibility,” Avramopoulous told the conference.
Athens is building additional facilities to house the refugees and migrants, but many prefer to go to the border in the hope of eventually getting through, and are stuck there for days and weeks.
Greece has asked the EU for 480 million euros in emergency funds to help shelter 100,000 refugees. A senior UN migration official has warned that the numbers stuck in Greece will probably reach 70,000 in the coming weeks.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
