UN warns of winter tragedy as migrant crisis lingers

The UN refugee chief on Friday urged the EU to speed up its response to Europe's migrant crisis, warning of a looming tragedy if thousands of people are caught on the move when winter hits.

"At any moment we could have a tragedy, namely during winter," United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told reporters in Geneva.

"We know how to winterise a camp. We know how to winterise a tent. We know how to winterise a building. We don't know how to winterise a crowd moving every day from one country to another," he warned.

His agency on Friday hailed the beginning of a EU scheme to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers within the bloc to ease the burden on frontline countries.

More than 600,000 people have flooded into Europe so far this year, mainly arriving by boat in Greece and Italy.

More than 3,000 have died over the same period trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Nineteen young Eritreans made up the first group to be relocated, leaving Italy for Sweden Friday.

But Guterres warned that crisis-wracked Greece, which has seen more than 440,000 arrivals this year, would have a far harder time creating the reception and processing facilities needed to ensure a calm and organised relocation process.

"This is not something that we can ask Greece to do by itself," he said, insisting that "it is only by a massive investment by the European Union that Greece (will be) able to do it."

Without more support, Guterres warned that Greece would be unable to create a system that could effectively address the problem.

"If the system is not powerful enough for the numbers coming, and is not credible enough for the people coming, what will happen is that the people will go on moving by their own means through this chaotic situation that we have today," he warned, pointing out that such a scenario "is totally unacceptable and very risky."

"With the kind of weather that you have in the Balkans, this can be a tragedy at any moment," he said.

The UN refugee chief is set to travel to Greece on Saturday for a three-day visit to assess the humanitarian response to the crisis.

He will first visit the island of Lesbos, the main entry point for most of those making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean from Turkey to Greece.

Guterres will then travel on to Athens on Sunday and Monday, and is set to meet with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and other members of his government.

Source: AFP