Tensions continue to be seen in Calais, where the French border police dismantled – on 10 August – a new migrant smugglers network – the nineteenth since the beginning of the year, as Le Monde reports – and on many Greek islands, including Kos, as reported in various European media, for instance, in Greek media, Aujourd’hui en France and The Times. The UN refugee agency UNHCR demands rapid actions from Greece as well as the EU in order to get the refugee situation on the Greek islands under control, writes IS.
The Greek authorities must immediately set up a single unit to coordinate the influx of people and to set up a humanitarian assistance mechanism. As Greece struggles with a difficult economic situation, other EU countries should show solidarity, IS adds. According to Ant1 TV, Commissioner Avramopoulos’s meeting yesterday with Alternate Minister for Migration Policy Tasia Christodoulopoulou and Alternate Minister of Citizens’ Protection Giannis Panousis did not offer substantial solutions. According to sources quoted by Ant1 TV, Mr Avramopoulos underlined that almost all the EU countries face a problem with illegal arrivals. He, however, guaranteed that he will ask the management authority to speed up processes for the disbursement of €33 million to Greece.
A government source predicted that the new Authority will be operational by the end of August, Kathimerini notes. “Emergency situations demand emergency decisions and measures. Mr Avramopoulos is a friend of Kos and he has a realistic perception about tackling the migration problem. I hope that he will help the country and the Greek government once more, promoting EU emergency economic support, which is necessary to deal with the problem on Kos and on other islands,” Kos Mayor Giorgos Kyritsis – quoted by Naftemporiki – pointed out.
In addition, the Daily Mail, investigating the rising number of people entering the EU over land via the Balkans, stresses that some 54,000 have crossed into Hungary so far this year – a figure expected to hit 130,000 by the end of 2015. That is up from about 43,000 in 2014 and 2,150 in 2012. Hungary has therefore said that it would launch a campaign in several Balkan countries to discourage asylum seekers from entering the EU through its territory, the WSJE reports, while the migration issue continues to garner wide media coverage in Hungary. This increase has led to calls in Germany for the reintroduction of passport controls across Europe to make it easier to return migrants to their home countries, the Daily Mail adds
During the first half of the year, 40% of asylum applicants in Germany came from West Balkan countries, German Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière says in an interview with ZDF. In the same interview, de Maizière says that refugees must be accepted and better integrated. He also calls for a European solution and criticises certain EU member states for not respecting EU regulations and thus threatening the right of free movement. The EU will establish “waiting zones” in Greece and Italy under European direction and with European money, de Maizière further announces.
©europeanuinion2015
