UN refugee agency issues recommendations to tackle refugee crisis in Europe

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) issued on Friday recommendations aimed at helping countries solve the refugee situation in Europe, deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq said here Friday.

The UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, has proposed a plan to European Union (EU) member states to manage and stabilize the refugee situation, Haq said at a daily news briefing.

"The plan includes six key points, intended as broad guidance," he said. "It includes implementing fully the so-called 'hot spot' approach and relocation of asylum seekers out of Greece and Italy, stepping up support to Greece to handle the humanitarian emergency, including for refugee status determination, relocation, and return or readmission."

Although the Greek authorities and military have ramped up their response, thousands are sleeping in the open without adequate reception, services, aid or information, reports said. With tensions mounting, the situation could escalate quickly into a full-blown crisis.

The plan, issued ahead of a meeting of EU heads of state or government with Turkey on Mar. 7 in Brussels, "also called to make available safer and more legal ways for refugees to travel to Europe under managed programmes and to develop Europe-wide systems of responsibility for asylum-seekers," he said.

UNHCR said the situation is quickly deteriorating with around 30,000 people now in Greece, about a third of whom are in Idomeni just near the border with Macedonia.

The UN agency is supporting the Greek government's efforts by deploying staff, helping coordinate the response and providing emergency shelter, technical support and information to refugees and migrants, Haq added.

"This is as much a crisis of European solidarity as it is a refugee crisis," Grandi said in a press release. "The collective failure to implement the measures agreed by EU Member States in the past has led to the current escalation in the crisis." Enditem