Confidential paper on refugees says EU countries refuse to send staff to Greece

They fear for the safety of their staff in Greek hotspots

According to a confidential document, German magazine “Spiegel” claims to have in its possession, EU member states refuse to send specialised staff to help Greece deal with the numerous refugees hosted in the country, citing overcrowded hotspots and enraged migrants in the reception facilities. The EU-Turkey refugee agreement provides for the deployment by EU member-states of specialised staff to the overstrained first entry countries of Greece and Italy to alleviate their burden. The document, which derives from the European Council, describes the situation in the hotspots in Greece as unstable that could “create problems to the national staff, the EU services and NGOs”. Greece has been bearing the brunt of the refugee and migrant flows from the Turkish coasts, with the economically strained country trying to pool whatever resources it has to successfully deal with the dire situation of processing asylum applications and readmissions of refugees and migrants to Turkey. Speiegel points out that even though the EU wants migrants whose asylum applications are rejected to be returned back to Turkey, currently the procedures are stalling as the Greek authorities are overwhelmed by the sheer number of people. An illustration of this is that on the island of Lesvos every 9 employees are assigned to examining the asylum applications of 6,000 refugees and migrants! “The EU member-states have responded to very small degree to requests for the deployment of specialised staff so far”, the magazine underlines. A German politician for the Greens said the conditions on the Greek islands is shameful for the EU.