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A BLAST of Arctic air moving over Europe to the Mediterranean last week put thousands of refugees and migrants trapped in tent camps, stranded in abandoned buildings and slogging across snow-packed routes at risk of frostbite and hypothermia. At least five have died in Greece and in Bulgaria.
Nearly 60,000 people seeking refuge in Europe are being warehoused in Greece in squalid camps, many in tents that are no protection from snow and freezing temperatures. Many have been there for months. Under a Turkey-European Union deal implemented last year, those who do not qualify for asylum are to be sent to Turkey, where their human rights are far from assured. As for those who do qualify, it's unclear where they can go; anti-immigrant sentiment is running high, and European Union countries are still balking at taking in most of the 160,000 refugees they agreed to accept from Italy and Greece in 2015.
In the Balkans, the situation is also dire. Save the Children warned that children in makeshift shelters in Serbia are at risk of freezing to death. The"EU's failure to respond is leaving thousands of refugees and migrants, including unaccompanied children, literally out in the cold," complained Andreas Ring, the organisation's Balkans representative.
Last Wednesday, Greece did send a navy ship that could house around 500 refugees to Lesbos, and scrambled to house others in hotels. The United Nations refugee agency is working with authorities in Serbia to distribute heaters, blankets, warm clothes and shoes. But Europe has no excuse for failing to prepare for the winter. In November, 78 children's rights agencies, including Unicef, urged the European Union and its members to do more to protect refugee children. St`phane Moissaing, the head of Doctors Without Borders mission in Serbia, said:"For months we have called on the EU, the UNHRC and Serbian authorities to put in place long-term solutions to avoid this catastrophic situation."
Whether Europe likes it or not, more people are on the way. At least 550 people heading for Italy were rescued last Friday and at least 180 people drowned on Saturday off the coast of Libya. There will be more deaths if desperate people continue to be cut off from legal routes to safety, and more suffering for survivors, cruelly shunned when they reach Europe's door.
