Greece to Get Additional EUR 5.9 M in EU Funds to Tackle Migrant Arrivals

Greek rescuers carry the body of a migrant who drowned on his attempt to cross the sea between the Turkish coastline and the Greek island of Lesvos (Lesbos), Greece, 25 October 2015. EPA/BGNES

Greece will receive an additional EUR 5.9 M of emergency assistance from the European Commission to tackle the high number of arrivals of migrants and refugees on its islands in the Eastern Aegean Sea.

The additional funding from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) will support Greece in implementing the hotspot concept and the recently agreed relocation schemes, the European Commission said on Monday.

The announcement comes a day after European leaders agreed on a 17-point plan of operational measures at a mini summit on migration called at a very short notice by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

The plan calls upon Balkan and other eastern European states to stop allowing asylum seekers to transit their territories to other neighbouring countries without first securing agreement from those neighbours. Greece will have to receive some 30 000 migrants by the end of the year under the plan.

The additional funding will fully cover the transportation costs for at least 60,000 people in need of international protection and other migrants from the Eastern Aegean islands to mainland Greece for a period of four months, the Commission said. The additional funding will be limited to people who have been properly registered, identified and fingerprinted on the islands before their onward transportation to reception centres in mainland Greece.

 

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