Bilateral agreement with Turkey not solution to refugee, migrant crisis: Greek official

As the number of migrants and refugees reaching Greek shores continues to grow, Greek secretary general of media and communication for the United Nations (UN), Lefteris Kretsos, on Monday called for enhanced cooperation between EU and Turkish authorities to address the worsening crisis.

"The EU should work closely with Turkey," he said in a press conference held at the UN headquarters here, warning however, that "we don't want to have a bilateral agreement with Turkey because we think this is a European problem."

According to the UN official, Greece, which has gone through tumultuous socio-economic times because of its debt crisis, has witnessed close to a 1,000-percent increase of migrant and refugee inflows since 2014.

The latest International Organisation for Migration (IOM) figures indicate that over 740,000 maritime migrants and refugees originating mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq have reached Greece in 2015 so far, while over 600 people have lost their lives trying to do so. Endit