Blackmail works: EU’s humanitarian aid & Frontex will come to Greece to create a buffer zone for Refugees

This nasty EU blackmail of alleged “Schengen suspension” bear fruits. Greece bowed to the pressure and  A) has activated the EU’s  Civil Protection Mechanism praised by Brussels as “humanitarian aid for refugees” and B) agreed that Frontex will be deployed at its northern borders to FYROM.

Both actions were announced today by the EU Commission spokeswoman

#Greece has activated the #CivilProtectionMechanism to ask for in-kind assistance to help tackle #RefugeeCrisis https://t.co/RIcSFikXda

— Natasha Bertaud (@NatashaBertaud) December 3, 2015

#RefugeeCrisis – #Greece agrees new @Frontex operation assist with registration of migrants at land border https://t.co/Jq1zkwDxdW

— Natasha Bertaud (@NatashaBertaud) December 3, 2015

The specific terms & conditions of the European “Help” and “Land border RABIT Guards” have not been disclosed and most likely never will. For the EU politicians is important that Greece was forced to surrender to their pressure and allow more than 400 border guards supplied by several EU countries do wander around. The issue of the Humanitarian Aid is even more precar as no details at all have been revealed – and much to KTG knowledge the EU has refused to do so.

It merely released a generalized statement:

“Assistance includes relief items, expertise, intervention teams and modules, and specific equipment. Experts are also deployed for needs assessment and coordination with the local authorities and international response
organisations, as well for advisory missions on prevention and preparedness.

The Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC)
The Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) is the operational heart of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. It provides a full 24/7 capacity to monitor and coordinate response to emergencies. The ERCC collects
real-time information on disasters, monitors hazards, prepares plans for the deployment of resources (experts,teams and equipment) from the voluntary pool, works with Member States to map available assets and coordinates EU’s disaster response efforts. Most importantly, it has direct links to the civil protection and humanitarian aid authorities in the participating states, ensuring a coherent European response to disasters”

Interesting to note is that only 8 EU members replied to the EU call for providing assistance.

A mechanism to address the refugee crisis
Member States were asked last month (23 September) to notify the Commission of the assets which can be held ready to deploy to help refugees. Only eight Member States (Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Sweden, Slovakia,the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia) have notified that they have – limited – civil protection assets or experts they would be prepared to deploy still this year, should a request be made. The Commission reiterates the need for Member States to support the mechanism with substantial contributions”

FRONTEX to ‘safeguard’ Greece’s land borders

In the FRONTEX press release, we read that the mission of Frontex guards in the North of Greece will be the assistance in the registration and fingerprinting of migrants at Greece’s land borders.”

The technical details of the deployment have still to be worked out between Frontex and Greek authorities, the deployment may start next week.

“It is crucial that all migrants entering the European Union are properly registered. Migrants at Greece’s northern border will be checked and those found not properly identified will be registered,” said Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri, who last week had claimed that the Frontex needed to expand its mandate and get access to databases in order to work sufficiently.

The agency currently has 195 officers on the Aegean islands most affected by migratory flows, identifying migrants and collecting intelligence about people smuggling networks. Just in the hotspot on Lesbos, Frontex currently deploys 83 officers. In October, Frontex called on Member States to provide 775 border guards for its activities, with 600 to be deployed in Greece. Member States have so far offered 447 officers.

What’s the EU up to?

While every Greeks puzzles about what’s in the mind of EU politicians, it looks more possible that
with the Frontex in the North and the ‘joint Greek-Turkish patrols’ in the East sea borders and the ‘generous’ distribution of humanitarian aid thousands of refugees and migrants will be trapped in Greece that will be turned into a buffer zone for the refugees and migrants of this world.

The idea of the Greek-Turkish joint patrols is up again today, although Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras vehemently rejected it last month at the EU leaders summit for the Refugee Crisis.

To add some spice in the whole circus pot, the EU leaked a document to the press today. The document, “an internal memo” – as it has been diplomatically described – contains among others some provisions about a possible suspension from Schengen for 2 years.. Later, some EU officials denied the ‘alleged’ EU plans to temporary suspend Greece from Schengen, giving some cheap explanations of the well-known style like “No, No, misunderstood, draft, memo, theoretical option,” blah blah blah.

But ‘they have the melon and the knife’ as we say here in Greece. They have the money, they are Greece’s creditors and they can put as much pressure as they want.

Frustrating, isn’t it?

EU document on Humanitarian Aid

EU Council Schengen memo

PS of course, if the EU suspends Schengen, Greece should respond with the same measure: Suspend passport-free travels to all EU citizens.