GENEVA (Sputnik) — The plan was submitted ahead of a meeting of European Union and Turkish leadership in Brussels, scheduled for March 7.
According to the UNHCR, the situation with refugees is quickly deteriorating with some 30,000 people now in Greece, almost a third of whom are in camps in Idomeni near the border with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
"Although the Greek authorities and military have ramped up their response, thousands are sleeping in the open without adequate reception, services, aid or information. With tensions mounting, the situation could escalate quickly into a full-blown crisis," the Agency notes.
Today we issued 6 recommendations to help States solve the refugee situation in #Europe https://t.co/irklaLCnYD pic.twitter.com/K2kRkrw1pM
— UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) 4 марта 2016 г.
The main points of the UNHCR plan include implementing the so-called "hot spot" approach and relocating asylum seekers out of Greece and Italy; returning people who do not qualify for refugee protection in the European Union; stepping up support for Greece; establishing a safer and more legal ways for refugees to travel to Europe; providing protection for separated children; implementing systems to prevent violence against migrants and developing Europe-wide systems of responsibility for asylum-seekers, including the creation of registration centers in the main countries of arrival.
Europe has faced an enormous influx of migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. Hundreds of thousands of refugees use transit routes through the Balkans to reach more prosperous countries in Western Europe.
The EU border agency Frontex recorded over 1.83 million illegal border crossings in the European Union in 2015.
