United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Greece has received the largest number of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean this year, taking in about 45,600 out of the 77,400 arrivals. The number is larger than that received by Spain, Italy, Malta and Cyprus combined.

More than 1,000 migrants and refugees have died in the Mediterranean Sea this year, the sixth year in a row that this "bleak milestone" has been reached, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR called for European Union (EU) member states to reactivate search and rescue operations and acknowledge the crucial role of aid groups' vessels in saving lives at sea.

A woman and a child were reportedly killed in a fire at the identification and reception center of Moria on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos on Sunday, the state-run Athens-Macedonian News Agency has said.

Protesting migrants have set fires inside and outside the Moria camp, on the island of Lesvos, demanding to be transferred into the mainland.

The migrants have clashed with police forces, a local website, lesvospost.gr reports.

Fire service officers have reached the site, trying to put the fires out.

In August, 7712 refugees and migrants arrived on nine islands in the eastern Aegean Sea, which is more than July when 5008 people entered Greece by sea. This is the report of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, BGNES reported.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has called on the international community to provide support and show solidarity to Turkey and other host countries that have been hosting millions of Syrian refugees since the start of the civil war in the Middle Eastern country.

Over a dozen migrant boats landed on Greece's Lesbos island within minutes of each other on Thursday in the first such mass arrival from neighbouring Turkey in three years, officials said, prompting Greece to summon Turkey's ambassador.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is seriously concerned by the Italian Government's decision to approve by law the imposition of fines on ships rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean.

The number of refugees in Turkey has reached 4.9 million, reported NOVA TV. 

Today we mark World Refugee Day. According to the UNHCR, to date, nearly 71 million people have left their homes because of military conflicts or persecution.

80% of them go to neighbouring countries.