{"id":161042,"date":"2015-10-20T15:59:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T15:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=161042"},"modified":"2015-10-20T15:59:09","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T15:59:09","slug":"migrant-crisis-arrivals-to-greece-reach-500000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=161042","title":{"rendered":"Migrant crisis: Arrivals to Greece reach 500,000"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">The number of migrants who have arrived in Greece this year has topped half a million, the United Nations said.<\/p>\n<p>The rate of people arriving has risen to 8,000 a day, the UN&#8217;s High Commissioner for Refugees said, with many hoping to beat winter weather.<\/p>\n<p>Most migrants then head north from Greece, but bottlenecks are forming in some Balkan states.<\/p>\n<p>Slovenia is to deploy its army to its border after being overwhelmed by numbers entering from Croatia.<\/p>\n<p>The number of migrants reaching Europe has reached record levels in 2015:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said more than <strong>650,000<\/strong>migrants arrived in Europe so far this year, compared with <strong>280,000<\/strong> last year<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">The UNHCR says the number of migrants arriving by sea this month is already more than five times higher than the total for October last year<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">At least <strong>3,135<\/strong> have died making the journey &#8211; compared with <strong>3,279<\/strong> throughout 2014<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most travel from Turkey to Greece, and while summer months usually see the most arrivals, the number of people reaching Greece increased in October.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Europe &#8216;must establish welcome centres&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said EU countries &#8211; who last month agreed to relocate 66,000 migrants from Italy and Greece &#8211; urgently needed to establish welcome centres as part of the deal.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Obviously Greece is doing what it can, it&#8217;s pulling in additional police,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But we need to repeat over and over again that it is of utmost importance here that reception conditions be established and be adequate to this enormous task.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The relocation plan &#8220;is in serious peril and may fail&#8221;, Ms Fleming said.<\/p>\n<p>The UNHCR says only 19 migrants have been relocated in the last months &#8211; all Eritreans, who have moved from Italy to Sweden.<\/p>\n<p>Hungary closed its southern border with Croatia on Friday night, citing security concerns. The decision forced migrants to switch to a slower route via Slovenia.<\/p>\n<p>Croatia and Slovenia imposed strict controls as a result, but those restrictions appeared to be relaxed on Monday night as many people waited in wet and windy conditions.<\/p>\n<p>But Slovenia said it had been overwhelmed by the numbers entering from Croatia over the last three days.<\/p>\n<p>Slovenia&#8217;s interior ministry says more than <strong>19,500<\/strong> migrants have arrived in the country since Friday, with at least <strong>5,092<\/strong> crossing the border on Tuesday alone.<\/p>\n<p>It had previously said it would take in only <strong>2,500<\/strong> migrants a day.<\/p>\n<p>The country&#8217;s parliament is expected to approve changes later on Tuesday to enable the army to help police guard the border.<\/p>\n<p>Slovenia has called on European Union member states to help with the influx of migrants who have entered the country over the past few days.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/41EF\/production\/_86197861_migrant_journeys_turkey_to_germany_624_v9.png\" alt=\"Map showing routes being used by migrants trying to reach Austria and Germany - 19 October 2015\" width=\"624\" height=\"570\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>Prime Minister Miro Cerar said the current numbers were beyond anything the small country could cope with.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is wrong to foster the illusion that it is possible for a small nation of two million people to stop, solve and rectify a situation where even much bigger EU member states have failed,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>No-man&#8217;s land: Border closures leave thousands stranded.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The number of migrants who have arrived in Greece this year has topped half a million, the United Nations said. The rate of people arriving has risen to 8,000 a day, the UN&#8217;s High Commissioner for Refugees said, with many hoping to beat winter weather. Most migrants then head north from Greece, but bottlenecks are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":161044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-161042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/161044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}