U.N. worried about migrants dying of cold, 'dire' situation in Greece

A stranded refugee boy rides his bicycle through a snowstorm at a refugee camp north of Athens January 10, 2017.REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis - RTX2YCOL

GENEVA (Reuters) - Refugees and migrants are dying in Europe's sudden cold snap, and governments must do more to help them rather than pushing them back from borders and subjecting them to violence and confiscations, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.

"It's about saving lives, not about red tape and keeping to bureaucratic arrangements," Sarah Crowe, a spokeswoman for the U.N. children's agency UNICEF told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva. "The dire situation now is Greece."