A rapid build-up of migrants at Greece's northern borders risks creating a humanitarian disaster, Reuters quoted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as saying on Tuesday. The agency called for better planning and accommodation for at least 24,000 stuck in Greece, including 8,500 at Idomeni where hundreds of migrants stormed the border on Monday and Macedonian police fired teargas to disperse them. "Europe is on the cusp of a largely self-induced humanitarian crisis", the UN refugee agency's spokesman Adrian Edwards told a news briefing. "The crowded conditions are leading to shortages of food, shelter, water and sanitation. As we all saw yesterday, tensions have been building, fuelling violence and playing into the hands of people smugglers," he said. Migrants have become stranded in Greece country after Austria and countries along the Balkans migration route imposed restrictions on their borders, limiting the numbers able to cross. The UNHCR also urged all EU member states to reinforce their capacity to register and process asylum seekers through their national procedures as well as through the European relocation scheme.
