More aid agencies pull out of Greek camps, spurning EU deal‏

http://www.ekathimerini.com/207268/article/ekathimerini/news/more-aid-agencies-pull-out-of-greek-camps-spurning-eu-deal

NEWS 14:55
More aid agencies pull out of Greek camps, spurning EU deal


More aid agencies working to alleviate conditions of refugees and
migrants arriving in Greece said they were joining a boycott of
detention centers on Wednesday, angered at an EU deal they say runs
roughshod over human rights.

Human rights organizations are incensed at a pact between the EU and
Turkey under which hundreds of new arrivals have been detained since
Sunday, for fast-tracking registration and asylum applications. Those
refugees or migrants who fail will be sent back to Turkey.

Aid agencies said cooperating with the Greeks at detention centers would
make them complicit to a practice which was “unfair and inhumane.”

UN refugee agency UNHCR and aid organization Medicins Sans Frontieres
(MSF), a major contributor to the relief effort, announced they would be
cutting back assistance on Tuesday. Two other aid agencies joined them
on Wednesday.

"The IRC alerted the (Greek) coast guard on Monday that we would not
transport the world's most vulnerable people to a place where their
freedom of movement is impeded upon," said Lucy Carrigan, a regional
spokeswoman for the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

The IRC will continue to support those at another makeshift camp, she said.

The Norwegian Refugee Council, a major non-governmental organization,
said on Wednesday it was suspending most of its activities within a
detention center on the Greek island of Chios.

"We are extremely close to be in a position where this site is
dangerously overcrowded ... We have a large number of refugees including
pregnant women and children lying on the concrete floor in the reception
hall," said Dan Tyler, a protection adviser for the council.

Tension within the facility was building up and there had already been
demonstrations, he told Reuters.

Greek authorities said they needed help. "We need these international
organizations, particularly the UNHCR which is of great assistance to
us. Naturally we want it to stay, under certain rules, of course,"
Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Toskas told Greek radio.

A government source said migration minister Yannis Mouzalas was trying
to coax aid organizations back.

"He is the best placed to mediate with these groups," the source said.

Mouzalas, a medical practitioner, had been extensively involved with aid
agencies and participated in relief missions before his cabinet
appointment in Greece's leftist-led government last year.

More than 147,000 people, many fleeing conflict in the Middle East and
Asia, have arrived in Greece by sea this year. Almost one million
arrived in Europe via Greece in 2015.

[Reuters]