UNHCR: Greece hosting 58,000 refugees and migrants in early June

The number of refugees, asylum seekers and people with no citizenship in Greece totaled 58,000 in early June, according to figures released by the Greek chapter of the UNHCR on Wednesday, World Refugee Day.

Sabine Wahning, head of the Thessaloniki office, says that there is a rising trend in the number of refugees in the world. Their number in Greece, however, does not exceed one percent of the global number.

The majority of people displaced are not hosted in Europe but in other continents, and particularly in less developed countries.

Out of the 58,000 hosted in Greece, 16,000 are in northern Greece and Thessaly. Of these 16,000, 67 percent are in Central Macedonia, 15 percent in Thessaly, 13 percent in Epirus and five percent in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace.

The UNHCR reports that in the first five months of 2018, around 11,200 people reached Greece by sea and 7,200 by land. In 2017, a total of 29,700 people arrived by sea and 5,600 by land.

It is also estimated that there are 3,500 unaccompanied minors in Greece, of which 96 percent are boys and four percent are girls, while 5.5 percent of those minors are under the age of fourteen.

The total number of accommodation facilities in Greece currently stands at 1,091, but there are 2,745 unaccompanied minors waiting for a placement.