UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie Pitt visits Greece, urges expansi..
Press Releases, 17 March 2016
UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie Pitt concluded her mission to Greece today meeting volunteers, NGOs and local authorities engaged in emergency response efforts on the island of Lesvos, and visiting refugee families.
The meetings followed the Special Envoy's visit to Athens yesterday, during which she met volunteers assisting refugees and asylum seekers at Piraeus Port and a temporary accommodation site at Eleonas.
In Athens the Special Envoy also held talks with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. She reiterated UNHCR's offer of support to increase protection and assistance to refugees strengthen the registration and asylum process, and implement the EU relocation programme.
They also discussed the high-level meeting hosted by UNHCR in Geneva on 30th March focussed on the expansion of legal pathways for Syrian refugees, in the light of the urgent need to enable the most vulnerable refugees to reach safety, to reduce the need for these people to put themselves in
the hands of smugglers.
On Lesvos, Ms Jolie Pitt also visited Moria registration centre where 2,800 refugees and asylum seekers are temporarily housed, to hear directly from families about their cases, their status and their experiences. Some 95 percent of the refugees in Moria are from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
She urged refugees to ensure they register with the Greek authorities and work through the formal asylum system.
Speaking at the end of her visit, Ms Jolie Pitt said: "I look forward to UNHCR being able to expand its work in Greece with the national authorities. The effective registering and screening of those arriving is vital, to enable the identify those who are refugees and be able to put forward the
most vulnerable cases deserving of resettlement, and to identify anyone whose claims are not valid."
"I want to thank the Greek people for their understanding and generosity in the face of difficult circumstances, and the efforts of the volunteers and local organizations I met during my visit. They and many others are working around the clock to receive and care for refugees arriving in
Greece. This needs to be matched by an international response equal to the scale of the global refugee crisis, which includes ending the conflict in Syria but must go far beyond that."