Greek Minister for Citizen Protection Christos Papoutsis has heralded the impact Frontex – The European Union’s border security agency – has had on the flow of illegal migrants into Greece.
Addressing the EU Justice and Home Affairs ministers’ council this week , Papoutsis cited the European Commission’s report on protecting the EU’s external borders and preventing illegal migration and stressed that the observed reduction in migration flow after the deployment of the EU border agency’s Rapid Border Intervention Teams (RABITs) in Evros was significant.
Papoutsis said that these first positive indications had to become more firmly entrenched and for this reason asked the Commission to speed up a series of initiatives to discourage undocumented migrants from entering the EU.
Among these he listed the signature of a European Re-admission Treaty with Turkey, stressing that Greece’s neighbour must fully respect the European acquis, the principles of the EU and the interests of the other member-states.
He also called for implementation of the Re-admission Agreement with Pakistan and said the EU needed to exert political pressure on migrant origin and transit countries to reduce the flow of undocumented migrants entering Europe.
The European Union’s border agency said it has seen a significant drop in the number of illegal immigrants crossing into the EU from Greece’s northeastern land border with Turkey since it deployed the rapid border intervention teams last month.
The deployment of 205 officers by Frontex from 26 member states in early November has seen the number of illegal crosssings into Greece drop from around 250-300 people a day to about 140 people a day, Frontex Deputy Executive Director Gil Arias Fernandez said.
However, he noted that while the increased border patrols could be considered a deterrent, the fall could also be due to other issues such as colder weather.
“It is too early to talk about the impact of the operation,” he said, but added that the decrease “is nevertheless significant.”
From January to the end of October, Greece reported a total of 75,200 illegal border crossings, with about 30,700 of those across the Turkish land border, Fernandez said.
Greek officials say Turkey is not doing enough to stop people from crossing illegally to Greece and Turkey’s refusal to take back immigrants who have crossed from its territory encourages would-be migrants to use that route.
Source: Athens News Agency, Associated Press, Reuters