Greece Has Difficulties Handling Refugee Flow Due to Financial Crisis - MSF

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Greece experiences difficulties with handling the huge refugee influx due to the country's financial crisis, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) spokeswoman Julia Kourafa told Sputnik.

Estimated 50,000 migrants have arrived in the country through neighboring Turkey in July alone, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. Undocumented migrants began to rally, demanding food and faster registration in the Greek southeastern island of Kos. The police used batons and fire extinguishers to disperse the protests.

"Most of refugees arrive on Greek islands where we see a huge number of them arriving every day," Kourafa said. "Here in Greece we also have a difficult financial situation, due to which the Greek state does not have increased capacities to respond to the needs of the refugees. Medical needs are mostly associated with living conditions on the islands."

She added that the number of refugees was "really alarming" and underlined that there should be a coordinated response to the situation both from the European Union and Greek authorities.

"We believe that more should be done to provide humanitarian assistance to the refugees," Kourafa said.

Europe is facing a rapidly increasing migrant crisis, as refugees flee conflict-ridden countries in the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa in hopes of gaining asylum in Europe.