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Conditions for refugees on Greek islands 'appalling'

A Syrian refugee mother holds her newborn baby after disembarking from the ferry 'Paros Jet' upon their arrival from Samos Island at the port of Elefsina near Athens, Greece.

Jerome Hughes
Press TV, Brussels

47,000 refugees have arrived on Greece's islands so far this year, a 69% increase compared to last year. Among those suffering dreadful, overcrowded conditions in the EU member state are thousands of unaccompanied children. The issue has just been debated in the European Parliament. 

A new, scathing report from the EU's spending watchdog, the European Court of Auditors, highlights that EU leaders agreed to relocate more than 98,000 refugees from Greece and Italy to the bloc's other member states but less than half, just 34,700 have been moved. During the EU parliament debate, one MEP simply read out newspaper headlines. 

1,090, that is the number of refugees who, according to the very latest figures from the UN, have died in the Mediterranean so far this year as they tried to reach the EU. 

Under the EU's Emergency Relocation Scheme, the number of refugees moved from Greece and Italy to the UK, Denmark, Hungary and Poland is zero. 

Rights groups say the refugee crisis has shown that the EU is incapable of upholding even its most basic values and principles, closing borders and outsourcing the problem to Turkey because, in the words of one EU legislator, prime ministers are simply too cowardly to do the right thing over fears of the political consequences. 


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