Aftermath of war

Nearly 21,000 refugees and migrants arrived in crisis-hit Greece last week -- nearly half the total number in all of 2014 -- the United Nations said on August 18. 

The magnitude of the refugee crisis in Greece was outlined a UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) report, according to which the number of refugees that landed on the Greek islands in one week (August 8-15) was half the total in all of 2014!

Serbia has so far registered 83,000 migrants and 500 of them applied for asylum in the country, UNHCR representative in Serbia Hans Schodder said on Tuesday.

The UN's refugee chief warned on August 18 that Germany and Sweden cannot be left to bear most of Europe's asylum burden, as German media reported that the number seeking refuge in the country could surge to 750,000 this year.

With scenes of thousands of illegal immigrants and refugees flooding the Greek islands of Kos, Lesbos and Leros making the news headlines all around the globe, it is interesting to see what the conditions are for refugees in other EU countries.

The world is facing its "worst refugee crisis" since World War II, EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said on Friday, AFP reported.

"Europe has to do its part to solve it in a civilized way," he added.

A total of 9,870 migrants have crossed into Bulgaria this year seeking refuge at the specialized centres, the deputy head of Bulgaria's State Agency for Refugees Vasil Varbanov has said.

The number of migrants entering Bulgaria has been rising by the month, from 1,070 in January to 1,869 in July, BGNES quoted Varbanov as saying on 13 August 2015.

Anger against Alternate Migration Policy Minister Tasia Christodoulopoulou continued to simmer on Wednesday on the eastern Aegean holiday island of Kos, given the continuing Third World-like situation with thousands of migrants camped in public spaces on the isle.

The head of UNHCR in Serbia says the country's treatment of refugees is positive, while its humane approach leaves little room for people traffickers.

Hans Friedrich Schodder told the Vienna daily Standard that Serbia's policy on this issue was "very much positive."

Around 500 refugees of Afghan, Iraqi and Syrian origins sheltering in an Athens park say they have no wish to stay in Greece and are hoping to move on to greener EU pastures as soon as they acquire documents.

The drama of the roughly 124,000 refugees that have struggled through the hardships of the journey to reach Greece does not end when they arrive on the country's shores.