Germany's family minister has called on the country's citizens to volunteer to mentor some 59,000 refugee children who came to the country without parents in 2015.

Manuela Schwesig revealed a free hotline had been setup to help Germans connect with unaccompanied minors from Syria and other countries.

The minister said refugee children and teenagers need lots of help with practical matters, legal questions, in school and everyday support.

Germany's family minister has called on the country's citizens to volunteer to mentor some 59,000 refugee children who came to the country without parents in 2015

Ms Schwesig said that even before the hotline was activated, many Germans had signaled they wanted to help the children. Prospective mentors must undergo police checks.

Some unaccompanied children are fostered in Germany, but many live together in special centers. Germany saw an influx of some 1.1 million asylum-seekers in 2015.

The news comes as aid group Doctors Without Borders warned that attempts by various EU nations to deter migrants have put thousands of people in danger and created more business for smugglers.

In a report, it said border closures and tougher policing only encourage people seeking sanctuary or jobs to use other routes to get to Europe.

MSF's head of operations, Brice de le Vingne, said 'policies of deterrence, along with their chaotic response to the humanitarian needs of those who flee, actively worsened the conditions of thousands of vulnerable men, women and children.'

The group urged the EU to create more legal ways to come to Europe and allow asylum applications at the land border between Turkey and Greece.

More than 1 million migrants arrived in the EU last year, however they have not always been welcomed.

Some unaccompanied children are fostered in Germany, but many live together in special centers. Germany saw an influx of some 1.1 million asylum-seekers in 2015

The news comes as aid group Doctors Without Borders warned that attempts by various EU nations to deter migrants have put thousands of people in danger and created more business for smugglers

More than 1 million migrants arrived in the EU last year, however they have not always been welcomed

Dutch police said that they arrested three protesters the previous night at a demonstration against a town's plan to build a center for asylum-seekers.

Riot police cleared a central square in the town of Heesch after demonstrators began throwing eggs and fireworks at officers. Police say there were no injuries.

The demonstrators were protesting plans, not yet been formally approved, to build a center for 500 asylum-seekers in Heesch, a village of some 13,000 inhabitants 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of Amsterdam. Last week, someone hung a pig's carcass from a tree near the proposed location.

Meanwhile, the European Union's top migration official says so-called 'hotspots' should be up and running in Greece and Italy within a month in an effort to better control how migrants flow into the bloc and conduct early security checks on them.

The hotspots intended to register new arrivals, take fingerprints and other data, and perform background checks. Those with no chance of asylum would quickly be sent home, while others would be more evenly distributed among EU nations.