Athens: The number of immigrants arriving in Greece, most of them refugees, has increased six-fold in the first five months of the year compared to the same period in 2014, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday.
According to an UNHCR report, since January, more than 42,000 people have arrived in Greece, six times the level of the same period last year (6,500) and almost the same as the total for all of 2014 (43,500).
Most of these refugees come from Syria (60 percent), Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Eritrea, arriving in Greece in small boats that left from Turkey.
In recent weeks there have been 600 arrivals per day, making the towns that host them "severely overcrowded," according to UNHCR.
Refugees awaiting registration, including families with children, have no choice but to sleep in the open, with no access to food or water.
Local volunteers have asked restaurants and bakeries for food donations to distribute to the refugees who are sleeping rough or in unused buildings.
Also, the Greek authorities have decided to allow Syrians with valid passports to board ferries linking the Greek islands with Athens to register in the capital and take pressure off local communities.
UNHCR estimates that until the end of May, at least 90,000 refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean.
These figures include 42,000 to Greece, 46,500 to Italy, 920 to Spain and 91 to Malta.
At the same time, 1,850 refugees and migrants have died at sea in the same period.
In the first five months of 2014, 49,000 refugees and migrants crossed the Mediterranean towards the European coasts.
