UN worried about migrants dying of cold, "dire" situation in Greece

UNHCR spokesperson detailed five deaths so far from the cold

GENEVA: Refugees and migrants are dying in Europe's sudden cold snap, and governments must do more to help them rather than pushing them back from borders and subjecting them to violence and confiscations, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.

"It's about saving lives, not about red tape and keeping to bureaucratic arrangements," Sarah Crowe, a spokeswoman for the UN children's agency UNICEF told a regular UN briefing in
Geneva.



"The dire situation now is Greece." UNHCR spokesperson Cecile Pouilly detailed five deaths so far from the cold and said about 1,000 people were in unheated tents and dormitories in Greece, calling for them to be transferred to better shelter on the mainland.

Joel Millman, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said migrant movements across the Mediterranean had "started out in a big way" in 2017, and the death toll for the year was already 27.