EU urges member states to relocate 6,000 migrants per week
EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos has urged all EU countries to begin relocating 6,000 refugees per week.
Avramopoulos made the call during his visit to the Idomeni refugee camp near the Greek border with Macedonia.
He was mainly calling for EU states to start taking the migrants in Idomeni in.
He also referred to the relocation program agreed to by the EU in September 2015. "We have adopted all together the relocation mechanism, which must work immediately. So I call to all member states to give more pledges and start implementing immediately this plan."
Back in September, EU states agreed to relocate at least 120,000 refugees from Hungary (54,000 people), Greece (50,400) and Italy (15,600).
So far, only 4,628 places have been made available for relocation in EU countries, and up to now only 288 people have been relocated from Italy and 235 from Greece to other EU member states.
There have recently been concerns of a health epidemic breaking out at the Idomeni camp due to poor sanitation amid heavy showers.
"The situation in Idomeni is tragic and unacceptable. It must stop immediately," Avramopoulos said.
He also asked migrants to follow the legal route of migration and urged them not to believe smugglers.
On Monday, several hundred people from the camp made their way across an unguarded stretch of Macedonian border.
The exodus of migrants resulted in an urgent meeting of the Refugees Crisis Management Mechanism chaired by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras late Monday.
"We appeal to the refugees at Idomeni to abandon their effort to remain in the area. There is no way that those who closed off the passage will reopen it again," Tsipras said Tuesday after a meeting at his office with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who has been in Greece since Monday.
Tsipras also urged migrants to move to reception centers. "We will work together to speed up the process for their legal relocation to Europe. The amassing of refugees and migrants at our northern borders is creating the conditions of a humanitarian crisis," Tsipras said. "We do not want to transform it into a cross-border problem between Greece and Skopje," he added.
More than 10,000 refugees and asylum seekers are still at the Idomeni transit camp hoping they will be able to move ahead further into Europe, according to the latest data released by the Greek Interior Ministry.
Avramopoulos made the call during his visit to the Idomeni refugee camp near the Greek border with Macedonia.
He was mainly calling for EU states to start taking the migrants in Idomeni in.
He also referred to the relocation program agreed to by the EU in September 2015. "We have adopted all together the relocation mechanism, which must work immediately. So I call to all member states to give more pledges and start implementing immediately this plan."
Back in September, EU states agreed to relocate at least 120,000 refugees from Hungary (54,000 people), Greece (50,400) and Italy (15,600).
So far, only 4,628 places have been made available for relocation in EU countries, and up to now only 288 people have been relocated from Italy and 235 from Greece to other EU member states.
There have recently been concerns of a health epidemic breaking out at the Idomeni camp due to poor sanitation amid heavy showers.
"The situation in Idomeni is tragic and unacceptable. It must stop immediately," Avramopoulos said.
He also asked migrants to follow the legal route of migration and urged them not to believe smugglers.
On Monday, several hundred people from the camp made their way across an unguarded stretch of Macedonian border.
The exodus of migrants resulted in an urgent meeting of the Refugees Crisis Management Mechanism chaired by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras late Monday.
"We appeal to the refugees at Idomeni to abandon their effort to remain in the area. There is no way that those who closed off the passage will reopen it again," Tsipras said Tuesday after a meeting at his office with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who has been in Greece since Monday.
Tsipras also urged migrants to move to reception centers. "We will work together to speed up the process for their legal relocation to Europe. The amassing of refugees and migrants at our northern borders is creating the conditions of a humanitarian crisis," Tsipras said. "We do not want to transform it into a cross-border problem between Greece and Skopje," he added.
More than 10,000 refugees and asylum seekers are still at the Idomeni transit camp hoping they will be able to move ahead further into Europe, according to the latest data released by the Greek Interior Ministry.