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UNHCR urges more efforts to tackle Greece's asylum challenges

Xinhua, January 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday called for more efforts to tackle challenges faced by Greece in its asylum system.

In its latest report released on Friday, the UNHCR said that over the past year, around 43,500 people arrived in Greece across the Mediterranean, a 280 percent increase from 2013.

About 60 percent were from Syria and there were also substantial numbers of Afghans, Somalis and Eritreans, many of whom moved on to other EU states, said the UN refugee agency.

The UNHCR noted that despite reforms carried out by Greek authorities, problems remained in Greece's asylum system amid the large inflows of migrants, including difficulties in accessing the asylum procedure, risk of arbitrary detention, inadequate reception conditions, lack of identification and support for individuals with specific needs, xenophobia and racist violence.

"The UNHCR is ready to continue working with Greek authorities to address these challenges and encourages EU member states and institutions to continue to extend their support to Greece," William Spindler, UNHCR spokesman, told reporters. Enditem