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Hellenic-Dutch Association of Commerce & Industry

Hellenic-Dutch Association of Commerce & Industry

Member: Society Premium
Since: 27.02.2014

18, Nikolaou Zekakou Street & K. Karamanli, GR-151 25 Marousi, Greece
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Regulating irregular migration by HeDA

15.04.2016 Share

On 18 March, following on from the EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan activated on 29 November 2015 and the 7 March EU-Turkey statement, the European Union and Turkey decided to end the irregular migration from Turkey to the EU. The agreement targets the people smugglers’ business model and removes the incentive to seek irregular routes to the EU, in full accordance with EU and international law. The EU and Turkey agreed that:
1) All new irregular migrants crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands as of 20 March 2016 will be returned to Turkey;
2) For every Syrian being returned to Turkey from the Greek islands, another Syrian will be resettled to the EU; People who do not have a right to international protection will be immediately returned to Turkey.

The legal framework for these returns is the bilateral readmission agreement between Greece and Turkey. From 1 June 2016, this will be succeeded by the EUTurkey Readmission Agreement, following the entry into force of the provisions on readmission of third country nationals of this agreement. The Commission estimates the costs of the practical implementation of the agreement to be around €280 million euro over the next six months. The EU will support Greece to put in place the necessary human resources, infrastructure and reception capacity in order to carry out registrations appeals processes and large scale return operations. In particular, the hotspots in the islands in Greece will need to be adapted – with the current focus on registration and screening before swift transfer to the mainland replaced by the objective of implementing returns to Turkey.

Emergency assistance

Since the beginning of 2015, Greece has been awarded €181 million in emergency assistance. For 2016, the Commission has significantly increased the emergency assistance budget under the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF) - the total amount of emergency funding available in 2016 for the refugee crisis now stands at €464 million. €267 million has been earmarked for Greece, out of which €193,7 million is still available to support the Greek authorities and International Organisations operating in Greece in managing the refugee and humanitarian crisis, provided requests for financing are submitted to the Commission. This funding can be made available for the needs of reception centres on the islands, as well as support for return operations (transport and accompanying measures). This funding can also be used for the temporary deployment of additional Greek staff or Member States’ experts deployed to Greece. The Commission awarded an additional €30.5 million from the available emergency funding for Greece to support the Greek Ministry of Defence in providing shelter, accommodation, food and health care to refugees. 

Funding available under the Greek multiannual National Programmes

The emergency funding comes on top of the €509 million already allocated to Greece under the national programmes for 2014-2020 (€294.5 million from AMIF and €214.7 million from ISF).

Frontex funding

€60 million euro is available in funding for return operations, including the reimbursement of the costs of Frontex return experts, the reimbursement of transport costs (including vessels made available through Frontex) and the reimbursement of police officers for return escorts (including police officers seconded by other Member States on the basis of bilateral police cooperation agreements).

EASO funding

Under the budget of the European Asylum Support Office, €1.9 million (additional allocations are foreseen) is available to support Member States under particular pressure in 2016 with the funding of for example case worker and judges and part of the mobile containers.

Emergency Assistance mechanism

 On 2 March, the Commission proposed an Emergency Assistance instrument, providing €700 million over the next three years, to be used within the European Union to provide a faster, more targeted response to major crises, including helping Member States cope with large numbers of refugees. The estimated needs for 2016 are €300 million with a further €200 million each for use in 2017 and 2018, respectively. At the same time the Royal Netherlands Navy frigate HNLMS Van Amstel will contribute in a NATO mission in combat against human trafficking.

It will be operating in the Aegean seas up to July 2016. The HNLMS Van Amstel is named after Jan van Amstel, a famous Dutch commander from the 17th century. Embassy staff visited the ship on March 29, the day before it headed direction to the Greek island of Chios.

Source: "HeDA News"

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