Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 13-06-19

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Public order minister appeals for EU's help with illegal migration problems

[01] Public order minister appeals for EU's help with illegal migration problems

Dendias presented the updated action plan for asylum issues submitted by Greece last January, stressing that the country had met its obligations. He noted that Greece had undertaken to issue decisions on all asylum applications by the end of August and that all Community funds for migration issues had been absorbed.

The public order minister underlined that, due to migration flows to Greece, there was a funding gap due to factors beyond Greece's control. He said that 'gap' in funds exceeded 70 millioN EUROS and arose from Greece fulfilling commitments on asylum issues. He also called on the European Commission to undertake its own responsibilities, noting that the cost of illegal migration to Greece came to roughly 247 million euros a year, whereas the European contribution was just 187 million euros.

Dendias stressed that Greece cannot agree with the provisions of the current Dublin II treaty, in spite of the changes made, since responsibility for illegal migrants - for purposes of repatriation, asylum etc - still primarily burdened the country of first entry.

"Greece is responsible for the handling of a major percentage of migration flows toward the EU with regard to asylum issues and this is not fair," he stressed.

mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";color:#0F1419;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; The minister also asked for the inclusion in the European migration agenda of considerations for the "redistribution" of illegal migrants within member-states, and the start of a discussion to create quantitative and quantitative criteria for redistributing migrants based on member-state GDP and population. According to Dendias, the proposal was positively accepted by many MEPs.

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article