European Commission grants additional € 5.9 million to Greece as emergency funding

EU News 294/2015

Brussels, 26 October 2015
AC/15/5908

The European Commission has awarded € 5.9 million of emergency assistance from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) to Greece to support the country in coping with the high number of arrivals of migrants and refugees on the Eastern Aegean islands. The additional funding will support Greece in implementing the hotspot concept and the recently agreed relocation schemes. It will fully cover, for a period of 4 months, the costs for the transportation by ferry of at least 60,000 persons in need of International protection and other migrants from the Eastern Aegean islands to mainland Greece. The additional emergency assistance is strictly limited to persons who have been properly screened, registered and fingerprinted on the islands before their onward transportation to mainland Greece, in order to rule out that EU funding is used for irregular secondary movements.

The provision of emergency assistance under the AMIF is part of the Commission's overall efforts to implement the principle of solidarity through concrete and effective actions addressing urgent and specific needs of Member States facing high asylum and migratory pressure. To this end, for 2015, the Commission has put aside a total of €51.5 million which will be delivered through the AMIF.

Source and additional information:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_AC-15-5908_en.htm?locale=en

File Photo: Dimitris Avramopoulos, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship. Date: 20/10/2015 Reference: P-029388/00-05 Location: Brussels - Radisson Hotel (C)EU, 2015 URL

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