UN Refugee Agency urges European countries to protect refugees from freezing temperatures News
UN Refugee Agency urges European countries to protect refugees from freezing temperatures

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) [official website] on Friday urged [press briefing] the governments of European countries to do more to protect refugees from freezing conditions. There have been several reports earlier this month of refugees dying due to the exposure to extreme cold. Many refugees in Europe are currently living in facilities that are not heated. The UNHCR has worked [UNHCR report] with authorities to to provide winter clothing, thermal blankets and heaters to many of the refugees in Belgrade and Greece. In Belgrade, 82 percent of the 7,300 refugees are now located in heated government shelters. There have some reports of police in some of these countries pushing back refugees to neighboring countries and confiscating their phones and winter clothing.

The refugee crisis in Europe has been one of the most significant humanitarian issues in the world. Last May a UNHCR press release urged [JURIST report] Greece to improve the living conditions in several of the refugee camps in the country. In April several aid organizations urged [JURIST report] EU leaders to stop deportations of migrants from Greece to Turkey and to stop detaining asylum seekers. Also in April Human Rights Watch reported [JURIST report] that the first deportation of 66 people from the Greek island of Chios to Turkey was “riddled with an array of irregularities.” Earlier in April 2016, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights called on [JURIST report] Turkey to focus on human rights in the wake of their anti-terrorism security measures.