The Latest: Greek, Panamanian ships respond to distress call

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) - The Latest on European reactions to the migrant crisis (all times local):

1:50 p.m.

Greece's coast guard says a distress call has been received from a suspected migrant smuggling boat carrying approximately 200 people in international waters south of the island of Crete and inside Libya's search and rescue area of responsibility.

The coast guard said Monday a nearby Greek-flagged tanker and a Panamanian-flagged cargo ship were heading to the area to provide assistance, after Libyan authorities asked Greece for help. No further details on the nature of the emergency were immediately available.

Hundreds of people have died in recent weeks in shipwrecks in the southern Mediterranean, with overcrowded and unseaworthy boats sinking on their way from the shores of north Africa toward Europe, usually heading to Italy.

__

1:15 p.m.

The U.N. human rights chief says the European Union needs to uphold its commitment to resettle tens of thousands of refugees now stuck in Greece and Italy.

Over a million people, mostly Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans, crossed the eastern Mediterranean Sea from Turkey to Greece since January 2015. The flow has recently slowed following an EU-Turkey accord on the migration crisis.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein noted a "worrying increase" in detention of migrants where "even unaccompanied children are frequently placed in prison cells or centers ringed with barbed-wire."

Speaking Monday to the Human Rights Council, Zeid said EU members "need to make good on their commitments" made in September to relocate 160,000 people from Greece and Italy. He cited new figures saying less than 1 percent of those have been relocated.

___

12:05 p.m.

Police in northern Greece are clearing makeshift migrant camps along the border with Macedonia after creating more shelter space to house stranded refugees and migrants.

Scores of riot police were deployed Monday as more than 400 Syrians and Iraqis were moved from a camp set up around a gas station near the Greek border with Macedonia and moved by bus to a shelter near the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Authorities said a site previously used to store grain had been modified by the army and was being used as a shelter where the migrants were being taken.

Journalists were not allowed access to the site during the police operation.

Around 3,000 refugees and migrants remain camped at the border at three sites, after authorities cleared a huge makeshift camp at Idomeni last month.