The United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says European
governments must do more to help refugees dying in Europe's sudden
cold snap instead of pushing them back from borders and exposing them
to violence and confiscations.
"Given
the harsh winter conditions, we are particularly concerned by reports
that authorities in all countries along the Western Balkans route
continue to push back refugees and migrants from inside their
territory to neighboring countries," UNHCR spokeswoman
Cecile Pouilly said on Friday.
She added
that five refugees have so far lost their lives from cold and said
some 1,000 people, including children, were in unheated tents and
dormitories on the Greek island of Samos and need to be transferred
to shelter on the mainland.
She said the
bodies of two Iraqi men and a young Somali woman were found close to
the Turkish border in Bulgaria and two Somali teenagers were
hospitalized with frostbite after five days in a forest.
The body of
a young Pakistani refugee was found along the same border in late
December, she added.
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