ATHENS – Trying to deal with a refugee and migrant crisis with several fronts, Greece’s new New Democracy government now said will provide more secure shelters for minors without parents or guardians and better housing over the next few months.

The data shows that there are 4,779 of them in Greek detention centers and camps housing some 78,000 refugees and migrants across the country but only 1200 insecure structures. There are more than 35,000 refugees and migrants on islands near Turkey which has let human traffickers keep sending them during an essentially-suspended swap deal with the European Union.

The number of unaccompanied minors has surged in recent months, reaching its highest point since the start of the refugee crisis in 2015, said Kathimerini, as the number of daily arrivals from Turkey – where they had gone fleeing war and strife in their homelands in hopes of getting to more prosperous countries in the European Union before the bloc closed its doors – is surging.

That leaves them only the option of seeking asylum in Greece or being returned to Turkey and an unknown fate as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he wants to separate applications from refugees and economic migrants and send 20,000 back to Turkey.

There have been repeated promises for better shelter for the unaccompanied minors by authorities, most from the former ruling Radical Left SYRIZA which was in power when the crisis began but nothing has happened about it yet.