The European Commission (EC) has awarded Greece emergency funding worth 56 million euros to improve conditions for migrants in the country, to increase the capacities of the Greek authorities to register newly arriving migrants and to process their asylum claims.
46 million euros is provided under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and 10 million euros comes from the Internal Security Fund (ISF). The funding will create better conditions for vulnerable groups and strengthen the registration and asylum process with additional human resources, better IT infrastructure, an increased availability of interpretation and better access to information.
The funding will support different projects:
⇒30 million euros is awarded to the UNHCR to support the Emergency Response Plan for Greece and strengthen the capacity of the Greek asylum service and of the new Reception and Identification Service;
⇒the International Organization for Migration (IOM) will receive 13 million to provide assistance to the most vulnerable migrants stranded in Greece.
⇒the Greek Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reconstruction and the Greek Asylum Service are awarded a total of 13 million euros to enhance the efficiency of the asylum process, strengthen the registration process and provide operational support to the Hellenic Police at the external borders.
This funding will contribute to the implementation of the emergency response plan developed together by the EC, the Greek authorities and relevant stakeholders to address the ongoing humanitarian situation on the ground and the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement of March 18.
Since the beginning of 2015 the EC has awarded 237 million euros in emergency assistance to support the Greek authorities as well as international organizations and NGOs operating in Greece. The emergency funding comes on top of the 509 million euros already allocated to Greece under the national programs for 2014-2020 (294.5 million euros from AMIF and 214.7 million euros from ISF).
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