Worldwide aid agencies have been scathing about Greece’s response.
Advertisement
“You have people that have small fractures to people that have blisters on their feet – cuts of different kinds – to graver situations in that you have people with epilepsy, high or low blood sugar and people with heart problems and different diseases on the respiratory tract”, said Januzoski.
UNHCR emphasised that this included responding to basic needs but also fully respecting the dignity and human rights of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants. “We are anticipating that this influx and this route is going to continue at the rate of up to 3,000 people per day”, UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told a news briefing.
Europe is now facing a major refugee crisis, as thousands of undocumented asylum seekers flee conflict-torn countries in North Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, escaping poverty and violence in their home countries.
A total of 2,093 refugees, the highest daily total to date, crossed the border near the Hungarian town of Roszke, a police statement said on Monday.
Hungary called on Tuesday for more money from the European Union to handle a rising tide of migrants crossing the Balkans, as a new wave hit its southern border and further exposed the cracks in EU policy towards the worst refugee crisis since World War II.
The issue is set to top the agenda at a summit of Balkan leaders on Thursday, which Merkel will attend.
About 140,000 migrants have reached Hungary this year, over three times as many as in all of 2014, but most quickly leave for richer European Union countries like Germany or the Netherlands.
“The authorities in Greece are utterly overwhelmed, offering little besides a simple registration document that allows the refugees to pass through the country and leave”.
The UN refugee agency stressed on Tuesday that it was working closely with the Serb authorities to help meet the needs of more than 10,000 refugees and others who have arrived in Serbia in recent days following dramatic scenes at the Greek border with Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Advertisement
Simmons said many in northern Serbia on the trial to attempt to cross into Hungary had already heard the country was trying to block its borders and were frightened about what lay ahead. “It’s a bigger number than previous year, yes”.
