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 The agency called for better planning and accommodation for at
least 24,000 stuck in Greece, including 8,500 at Idomeni where
hundreds of migrants stormed the border on Monday and Macedonian
police fired teargas to disperse them.
"Europe is on the cusp of a largely self-induced humanitarian
crisis", the UN refugee agency's spokesman Adrian Edwards told a
news briefing.
"The crowded conditions are leading to shortages of food, shelter,
water and sanitation. As we all saw yesterday, tensions have been
building, fuelling violence and playing into the hands of people
smugglers," he said.
 Migrants have become stranded in Greece country after Austria and
countries along the Balkans migration route imposed restrictions on
their borders, limiting the numbers able to cross.
The UNHCR also urged all EU member states to reinforce their
capacity to register and process asylum seekers through their
national procedures as well as through the European relocation
scheme.
"Greece cannot manage this situation alone," Edwards said.
Despite commitments to relocate 66,400 refugees from Greece, states
have so far only pledged 1,539 spaces and only 325 people actually
have been relocated, he added.
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Some 131,724 refugees have crossed the Mediterranean in January and
February, more than in the first half of 2015, it said. A further
410 have died at sea.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Writing by Hugh Lawson; Editing by
Dominic Evans and John Stonestreet)
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