Roundup: Greek political leaders seek common ground on refugee crisis, as 30,000 people stranded in Greece

A marathon meeting of Greece's political leaders was held in Athens on Friday in a bid to find common ground on the handling of the refugee crisis ahead of a critical EU-Turkey summit in Brussels next Monday.

Meanwhile there are as many as 30,000 people remaining stranded in Greece, according to the latest official data, in suffocating living conditions in many cases.

Chaired by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos the eight- hour talks between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and opposition parties, with the exception of the far-Right Golden Dawn, ended with a minimum consensus achieved on a national strategy framework, despite reservations.

In a joint statement released after the meeting that was co-signed by the two-partite ruling coalition, the main opposition party and other two smaller parties, Greek political leaders called for measures to proportionally share the burden across Europe and implement agreements on refugees relocation with the EU and better monitoring of the flows in the Aegean Sea.

According to the statement that outlines Greece's position at Monday's summit Athens reiterates a pledge to fully honor its commitments under recent agreements on the managing of the crisis.

Greece will further strengthen refugee reception centers, as well as facilities for irregular migrants and will keep protecting European borders by cooperating with the European border control agency Frontex and NATO. Athens also proposes that the headquarters of the new European Coast Guard will be in Greece.

On the other hand, Greece requests that other countries will also fulfill all their pledges, the statement stressed, so that thousands of people who keep landing on the Aegean Sea islands will not be trapped in the country for months or even years.

The Greek political leaders authorized the Greek Prime Minister to request EU to "make clear that unilateral actions will not be accepted and countries that choose them will face repercussions."

The joint statement also includes a call for the relocation of refugees directly from Turkey to avoid further deaths in the Aegean Sea and a "leading role of the EU" in efforts to end the war in Syria so that refugees can return home as soon as possible.

Currently more than 30,000 refugees are trapped in Greece, with a third queuing at the Idomeni border crossing between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), according to figures released by a newly created committee coordinating ministries dealing with the crisis.

The gradual essential closures of borders in Austria and Balkan countries over the past two weeks with the introduction of caps that allow only a few hundred refugees continuing their journey to the European north, has created a bottleneck in Greece.

Especially at Idomeni the situation is dramatic, according to UNHCR and volunteer groups who report that the overcrowded camp set up a few months ago with a 1,500 capacity cannot cover the increased needs.

A newly created tent city expands in recent days, while more than 1,000 people are spending the night outdoors wrapped in blankets under the rain.

As the number of refugees grows, the shortage of food and medicines worsens at Idomeni, as well as other fully packed temporary hospitality facilities set up by the Greek state across the country and in makeshift camps in open squares in central Athens.

The escalating refugee crisis was on the top of the agenda of talks Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held in Athens on Friday with Greece's government ahead of Monday's summit and the 4th Supreme Greek-Turkish Cooperation Council scheduled for the following day in Turkey.

The refugee crisis is "neither Greek nor Turkish, but a global challenge" both Cavusoglu and his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias stressed in statements to the Press after their meeting, urging for more international action.

On the agenda of discussions were issues such as NATO's involvement in stemming the refugee and migrant flows and cracking down on traffickers' rings with patrols in the Aegean, as well as the migrants resettlement in Turkey. Endit