UN High Commissioner for Refugees Calls on Europe to Help Greece

The UN’s top official on refugees on Wednesday urged Europe to help Greece to improve conditions in refugee camps.
Speaking to reporters after visiting refugee camps on Greece’s Aegean island of Lesvos, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told reporters that the deplorable conditions at the camps need to be improved. “These living conditions need urgent improvement,” Grandi said.
He also said he is “very worried” about the condition of unaccompanied refugee children. “Europe has to do more for Greece, this is part of the European Union,” Grandi added.
“We must do more for the reception infrastructures in all the refugees and migrants reception countries. In Greece, in Italy, in Malta, in Spain but Greece is today the country mostly affected by the crisis, so my message is that we need more funds to offer solutions”.
Grandi also met Greece’s PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens where he was briefed on the government’s initiative for unaccompanied children. The “No child alone” initiative will provide housing with the help of the EU, UNHCR and Citizens Society.
Mitsotakis also briefed Grandi on efforts at EU level to reform the system for asylum granting and the new Greek law on asylum, while he stressed the need for Turkey to respect the EU-Turkey Joint Statement of March 2016 on migrants.