The European Union Commissioner for Migration has warned that Greece is receiving more and more refugees from Turkey this year, pinpointing the need for more budget and personnel to police the borders.
Commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said on Wednesday that the arrivals in Greece had increased nine times in March this year compared to the same period last year.
15,457 people had arrived via Turkey on Greece’s sea and land borders through that month, he added.
Arrivals were still far lower than those recorded at the peak of Europe’s refugee crisis in 2015, saying a deal with Turkey in March 2016 to help curb arrivals from Syria and other countries was still working.
EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said progress on containing the refugee flow from both Turkey and places in Africa was good, but he said more work was needed to ensure that borders remained calm.
“In the last years, important progress has been made both within the EU and with our partner countries,” said Avramopoulos, adding, “However, the situation is still fragile and our work is far from over.”
“The EU continues its work on all fronts to protect the external borders, strengthen cooperation with international partners, providing protection to refugees and save lives on dangerous migration routes,” he added.
Avrmaopoulos said also that the EU Commission would not support extending fence at Greek-Turkish border, stressing “We are against building walls.”
“Avrmaopoulos said also that the EU Commission would not support extending fence at Greek-Turkish border, stressing “We are against building walls.”” It is bc of instances such as these, that i am shocked at how some media outlets still have some resistance against calling things by their proper names when it comes to the E.U..I don´t like Trump,Le Pen, etc for their anti refugee rhethoric; however, the E.U. seems to be better at implementing (badly disguised) far right actions than the far right parties (in European states) themselves. Aaah…but the E.U. sure likes to lecture otherwise. Merkel hailed as the humanitarian…cough,cough…after deporting people to war zones back in their countries just so she could score enough points in the last German elections…and Macron, who seems to think we Europeans are what the French call “cons”, talking about returning to an European Union, with “European” values, while at the same time allowing French police officers to STEAL shoes and sleeping bags from the already destitute/roofless refugees trying to get to the U.K.. Shoes and sleeping bags provided by the NGOs…they´re not yours to take,Macron. And you´re not fooling anyone. A badly disguised copy of the Far right wing he´s so intent on “fighting against”. It it weren´t tragic, it would just be pathetic.