Humanitarian crisis brewing at refugee camp: UNHCR

A  UN official has warned about a growing humanitarian crisis at a refugee camp on the border between Greece and Macedonia, saying that Europe needs to “wake up” to the issue.

Some 13,000 migrants are currently stranded in northern Greece and counting after Macedonia strictly limited the numbers allowed to pass through.

“What Europe needs to wake up to is that there is a humanitarian crisis here, in Greece, and they cannot cope, they need help,” Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, said on Monday.

“And these desperate people who have been spending night after night, hoping that they will be able to get across or at least hoping that there will be help, they need an answer – a quick answer,” he said in a statement.

Europe is facing its biggest refugee crisis since World War Two, mostly from a flood of asylum-seekers fleeing conflicts in the Middle East. 

Most refugees come via Turkey, which borders Syria where a diverse group of militants are fighting to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad with foreign support.   

Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the UNHCR office in Geneva, said Europe faces an imminent humanitarian crisis following a rapid build-up of people in Greece.

“With governments not working together despite having already reached agreements in a number of areas, and country after country imposing new border restrictions, inconsistent practices are causing unnecessary suffering,” he said.

Vincent Cochetel, the UNHCR’s regional refugee coordinator for the refugee crisis in Europe, also urged Europe to implement burden-sharing agreements reached last year.

“Greece needs a safety valve. It is time for Europe to wake up, either we have a massive orderly relocation from Greece or a repeat of what we saw last year, more chaos and confusion,” he said.

Free pepper spray distributed in Vienna

In Austria, however, two legislators from right-wing political party Team Stronach handed out hundreds of free pepper spray canisters to people in front of the parliament building.

Robert Lugar and Martina Schenk gave out around 200 pepper spray canisters in a matter of minutes as women, most of them middle-aged, lined up to get their hands on one.

Lugar said Austrians were feeling less and less safe as a result of the refugee influx into the country.

“We need to send back all immigrants from Austria, and there are 300,000 of them here,” he said.

The sales of self-defense weapons have soared by 350% following alleged sex attacks in Cologne on New Year’s Eve. The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) says that refugees are committing crimes on the same level as those perpetrated by native Germans.

EU delays Turkey refugee deal until next week

Furthermore, European Union leaders pushed back until next week a decision on a deal with Turkey to cope with the worsening refugee crisis.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu demanded three billion euros (3.3 billion dollars) in aid plus visa-free travel to the EU’s Schengen passport-free area for Turkey’s 75 million people in exchange for Ankara’s share in helping deal with Europe’s refugee crisis.

French President Francois Hollande said  EU visa liberalization for Turkey can only take place if 72 criteria are met, and that talks on Turkey’s accession to the 28-nation bloc are “still a long way from concluding.”

“Visa liberalization could take place in June if the criteria are respected, there are 72 (of them),” Hollande said following an emergency summit of EU leaders with Davutoglu in Brussels.

Some 1.1 million refugees were registered in Germany between January and December 2015.

Many blame major European powers for the unprecedented exodus, saying their policies have led to a surge in terrorism and war in those regions, forcing more people to flee their homes.

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