‘ Migrant surge not caused by Russian strikes’

● Slovenia said it is considering building a border fence to help stem a record influx of migrants and refugees as thousands more people arrived

Geneva/ Ljubljana/ Paris, Oct. 23: The number of refugees and migrants reaching Greece surged to 48,000 in the five days to October 21, the International Organisation for Migration said on Friday, but the UN refugee agency said Russian airstrikes in Syria had not caused any significant refugee exodus.

IOM said the latest surge of people arriving in Greece was the highest weekly total so far in 2015, bringing the number of Mediterranean migrant arrivals in Europe to 681,000.

Amin Awad, the West Asian director for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, said Russian airstrikes and increased fighting around the Syrian city of Aleppo had contributed to the “dynamic of displacement”, with about 30,000 displaced, but had not contributed much to the refugee exodus.

The UN office for coordination of humanitarian affairs puts the number at 50,000.

“The latest fighting, whether ground fighting or air strikes did not contribute too much to exodus… across the international border to make them refugees. That did not happen,” Mr Awad told a regular UN briefing in Geneva.

But he said the number of internally displaced people within Syria had fallen from 7.6 million people to 6.3 million, a decline that could be attributed to the refugee flows to Europe, as well as people being missed from the latest count.

Meanwhile, Slovenia said it is considering building a border fence to help stem a record influx of migrants and refugees, as thousands more people arrived from Croatia on Friday.

The small Alpine nation has become the main entry point into the European Union’s passport- free Schengen zone after Hungary sealed its southern borders with razor- wire fences to stop migrants desperately trying to reach northern Europe before winter sets in.

More than 1,300 migrants were moved out of a disused Paris school on Friday, the last major camp in the French capital and where they had spent months in increasingly rough conditions.

The police transported the group in a fleet of buses early in the morning, taking them to hostels and special accommodation around Paris.

“I don’t know where we’re going, but it has to be better than here: we can have a shower, food. There were too many fights here,” said a Moroccan.

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