Most hoteliers in northern Greece are extremely reluctant to rent their rooms to refugees, fearing that this will negatively impact their tourism business, according to UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) officials in Greece. Only a small number of hotels, chiefly those in mountain regions, have embraced the refugee hospitality programmes as a "life-raft" for their ailing businesses, they noted.

The extremely bad weather conditions prevailing in Greece in the last days prevented refugees from attempting to cross the Aegean.

Several refugees and migrants  left the camp in Moria, Lesvos, and set up their tents in a ruined Ottoman castle in Mytilene, in a desperate effort to escape the bitter cold and heavy snowfall which has affected the island in the last few days.