Refugee crisis

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras pointed out that migration is a critical issue for the whole of Europe, not just Greece. Ahead of a meeting on the refugee crisis, he said that Greece is Europe’s border and receives massive refugee flows.

Around 224,000 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in the first seven months of the year, the UN refugee agency said on Thursday.

That number already exceeds the total of 219,000 people who made the perilous journey during all of 2014, which has been the highest number on record until now.

The new Serbian national strategy on refugees and displaced people will not help them resolve their problems, a refugee association warned.

The tenth annual Croatia Forum, started on Thursday in Dubrovnik in southern Croatia under the logo "New development policy - towards partnership and a common vision."

Three-day-long conference, gathering 27 foreign ministers and other senior officials, will discuss development aid, sustainable growth, terrorism and other issues hampering regional progress.

According to the latest report of UNHCR, which was released on Wednesday, 137 000 crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Europe in the first half of 2015.

A large majority of the people making the dangerous sea crossing between January and June were fleeing war, conflict or persecution, making the current Mediterranean crisis primarily a refugee crisis.

A record 137,000 people made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe in the first half of 2015, most of them fleeing war, conflict and persecution, the United Nations said July 1.

Hollywood actress and director Angelina Jolie on June 20 described a spiralling global refugee crisis as an "explosion of human suffering" whose causes the international community refuses to confront.

The U.N.?s refugee chief on June 18 urged the international community, including Western states, to open up their borders and follow Turkey?s example in hosting Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

Conflicts and violence across the world have increased the number of people forced to leave their homes to the record 60 million on a global scale, as reported by the UN.

The number of people going away from their homes has increased by 8,3 million since 2013, marking the biggest increase in history, according to a recent UNHCR global trends report, entitled ''World at War''.

Thousands of Syrians are fleeing their country as many different groups fight with each other to gain a sphere of influence. The Syrian refugee crisis has becoming more and more severe, especially for those who have needed to run from their own country.