Amnesty International released a report characterising the conditions for refugees in Greece as inadequate. The report calls on Greek authorities to improve its asylum procedures and guarantee the safety of all those refugees living in the country. More specifically, the report points out that 46,000 refugees are trapped in Greece, while it judges the conditions in most of the temporary camps as ‘inadequate’. The report focuses on the conditions of the children and women refugees

in Greece after the sealing off of the northern borders between Greece and FYROM on March 7. It notes that the lodgings set up in Greece with the assistance of the EU are overcrowded, completely lack sanitation and heating facilities, while offering no privacy at all. In addition the report refers to toto lack of information to refugees on their rights, while vulnerable groups such as women and children have not been properly identified. Women says they feel unsafe and fear of being exploited by men in some camps. Amnesty International also interviewed children held in police stations for 15 days before being transferred to special hostels. The report calls on EU member states to continue assisting Greece in providing for the refugees, but adds they should also accelerate procedures for relocation of asylum applicants to other countries in Europe. ‘EU countries have managed to worsen the crisis by failing to act decisively and aid in the relocation of thousands of asylum applicants’, the reports underlines. Only 615 refugees have been relocated to other EU member-states from Greece, out of the 64,400 under the agreed plan.