Greece urged to improve conditions for refugees amid economic problems

Greece must regulate and improve conditions for thousands of migrants, many of them children, a U.N. human rights official said Monday.

"The perceived lack of information, plus overcrowding, creates confusion, frustration, episodes of violence, fear," Francois Crepeau, the United Nations' special rapporteur on migrant human rights, told reporters.

There have already been flare-ups of violence in camps, mainly in the Moria facility on Lesbos island, where people increasingly desperate to be allowed to continue their journey to a better future in northern Europe. On Monday, a group of migrants set fire to garbage bins in front of the camp's asylum service. Police dispersed them with stun grenades, the state ANA agency said.

Last week, six migrants fed up with being stuck on the island of Chios tried to swim back to Turkey.

Lack of information is a major reason for the anxiety among the migrants, said Crepeau, adding that detaining children was flat-out unacceptable. "Greece implements detention of children. Children should not be detained, period," said the Canadian lawyer, who visited camps and detention centers in Athens, the islands of Lesbos and Samos, and Polykastro in northern Greece.

There are over 54,000 people on Greek territory, including some 45,000 migrants who arrived before the EU-Turkey deal took effect and were stuck after other Balkan countries began closing their borders in mid-February. Greece on Monday said it would begin preliminary registration of migrants who arrived prior to the EU-Turkey deal, and who wish to apply for asylum.

"The pre-registration exercise will take several weeks to conclude, but all those who arrived in Greece before March 20, wishing to apply for international protection in Greece and are currently residing on the mainland will be able to pre-register," the government said in a statement.

Greece, in its sixth year of economic crisis, has struggled to cope with the numbers. International charity Save the Children says an estimated 2,000 unaccompanied children who traveled alone to Europe or lost their families on the way are stranded in Greece and only 477 shelter spaces are available across the country. "[Unaccompanied minors] are put in ... protective custody and the only place there is space [for them] is the cell in police stations and that's where we find them quite often," Crepeau said. "Spending 16 days [in a police cell] is way too long. What is needed is specialized body of competent professionals who can take care of unaccompanied minors."