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The main areas of U.N. concern, Lumina said, were a surge in racially-motivated attacks against immigrants and the rapidly growing number of long-term unemployed who lost their health insurance when unemployment benefits are cut after a year. "Due to the increase of long-term unemployment, only about 160,000 persons receive (unemployment) benefits," he said. He urged Greece's authorities and creditors to take urgent steps to restore the country's welfare safety net and launch a major social housing program, after the crisis pushed the number of homeless up by about 25 percent to 20,000 people. Greece has a practically non-existent social housing program, compared to rates exceeding 20 percent in some European countries including Denmark, Britain and the Netherlands, according to the European Union's statistics agency, Eurostat. A full U.N. report on the human rights impact of Greece's austerity program is not expected until March 2014, while the bailout program has been extended for two years to the end of 2016. Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras renewed a pledge this week, promising to return to growth next year after the crisis saw output slump a staggering 25 percent. But unions say the recession is likely to continue until 2015 or 2016.
[Associated
Press;
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