Hellenic-Dutch Association of Commerce & Industry
Since: 27.02.2014
Regulating irregular migration by HeDA
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"