Greece needs debt relief to combat crisis: UN expert

Greece needs debt relief from its international creditors to combat its dual economic and refugee crises, a UN expert said Tuesday.

"Greece needs debt relief in order to trigger socially inclusive growth," Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, the UN`s independent expert on foreign debt, told a news conference.

Bohoslavsky was in Athens for a report on the effects of foreign debt obligations on human rights, to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council.

He noted that after five years of economic adjustment applied in Greece, economic and social indicators had worsened with some 2.5 million people with limited on no health insurance and only one in ten registered unemployed in the country`s one-million army of jobless receiving benefits.

Moreover, over 3.7 million Greeks -- 36 percent of the population -- are at risk of poverty and social exclusion, he said.

"It is therefore justified to speak about a humanitarian and human rights crisis in the field of economic and social rights in Greece," Bohoslavsky said.

The leftist government of Alexis Tsipras in July was forced to accept a third bailout from the EU to keep the country in the eurozone.

Soon afterwards, Europe was faced with its greatest refugee challenge since the Second World War, with Greece at the forefront of nearly a million arrivals mainly from war-torn Syria.

Bohoslavsky said the economic accord shoult take account of Greece`s added refugee burden.

"It is difficult to understand why eurozone states have not relaxed budgetary restrictions that would ensure that Greece can further strengthen its response to the (refugee) crisis," he said.

He said that the bailout requirements ought to reflect the grim reality in the Greek labour, health and social security sectors.

"Both the (Greek) government and its international lenders need to undertake a comprehensive human rights impact assessment that lives up to its name," the UN expert said.