News / EU

Human rights monitor slams Greece over refugee centers

Tuesday, 31 May 2016 4:58 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 31 May 2016 4:59 PM ]

This image from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) twitter page, dated May 29, 2016, shows Tineke Strik's visit to Oreokastro refugee camp near Thessaloniki, Greece.

A European Union human rights monitor has criticized the Greek government over what it calls the sub-standard conditions at refugee centers housing asylum-seekers moved from the Greek border camp of Idomeni.

"In the places that I visited, there was no privacy, no fire safety, no light and no ventilation and people have no information on their situation or their prospects," said Tineke Strik, from the Council of Europe, after visiting three new reception and registration centers in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Strik, a Dutch deputy who is the migration rapporteur for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Strasbourg-based council, said the refugee centers lacked “decent facilities that meet international standards.”

Many of those transferred to Thessaloniki "are hoping to be reunited with family members already in other European countries," said Strik.

"Their psychological well-being will depend on the rapid completion of the pre-registration process and the ability to exercise their right to apply for asylum," she added.

On Friday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had warned about the 'lower-than-standard conditions at the camps.'

“UNHCR is seriously concerned about sub-standard conditions at several sites in northern Greece where refugees and migrants were evacuated this week from the makeshift site at Idomeni,” Melissa Fleming, the spokeswoman for the UNHCR, said at a press briefing in Geneva on Friday,

"[UNHCR] urges the Greek authorities, with the financial support provided by the European Union, to find better alternatives quickly,” she said.

Children are pictured inside a new camp for refugees set in an abandoned factory in Sindos, a west suburb of Thessaloniki on 27 May, 2016. (AFP Photo)

From May 24 to May 26, the Greek government ordered the mandatory evacuation of thousands of people waiting for passage to northern Europe from the makeshift refugee camp in the village of Idomeni in northern Greece to official refugee camps erected in “derelict warehouses and factories,” as Fleming described them.

Last year, more than 1.1 million refugees entered Europe through Turkey and Greece and then made their way through the Balkans to Germany and other northern member states of the bloc.

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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