Swedish European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström spoke with protothema.gr and stated that Greece is making improvements on matters concerning immigration. Nonetheless, she had expressed criticism of the new immigrant detention center on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos when speaking to Greek Public Order Minister Vasilis Kikilias.
During her visit to Lesvos, Mr Kikilias and Merchant Marine Minister Miltiades Varvitsiotis urged Ms. Malmström to give additional EU funding for Greece to continue adequately monitoring its borders and deal with the increased migration flow. She told protothema.gr that the EU already supports the Greek system on this matter with hundreds of thousands of euros and states that it is not up to her to administer funds. “It is the money of European taxpayers and our role is to monitor, to ensure that this money is being properly invested,” she said, adding that 500 million euros was recently given to Greece to combat with illegal immigration.
Specifically, she said that Greece had received 45 million euros for EU border control in 2012 and Italy had received 53 million euros whereas the year after, Greece received 44 million euros and Italy received 84.6 million euros. “The financial support of Italy increased because the pressure to that particular country multiplied respectively,” she said, adding that funding is regulated according to the flow of immigration. Another factor that was considered is the low absorption rate noted by Greece that has a tradition of lagging behind.
Regarding Turkey, Ms. Malmström said that progress had recently been made with the signing of an agreement between the EU and Turkey. She considers that the Turkish parliament’s approval is a formality. With this new agreement, the process to return immigrants that illegally enter Europe through Turkey back to the country of origin. Efforts are being made to create similar agreements with other countries in the region, such as Morocco, Tunisia and Libya.
Ms. Malmström did not give a clear answer when asked about funding that Turkey receives to deal with immigration, however she did state that the funding was of a humanitarian nature. She said that she did not believe that the EU was giving aid for the creation of Turkish immigration centers.
Ms. Malmström said that she knows for a fact that Turkey has received around a million Syrians to its refugee centers. Many of these refugees stay for a long time, however she was unwilling to give an opinion as to whether Turkey pushes these refugees onto Greece.
The Dublin II Regulation that established the principle that only one member state is responsible for examining an asylum application has already been amended, according to Ms. Malmström. She said that the view by many, that “Dublin II” is unfair is because most people would want to go elsewhere and not stay in the first country that granted asylum as is the case for many who are “trapped” in Greece. She said that Greece is the 12th country on the list of asylum seekers. She agreed that a new framework for dealing with immigration needs to be found and that all member states need to stand by Greece so that the burden of such a large number of immigrants can be eased.
In reference to the ultra-nationalist, fascist Golden Dawn party, Ms. Malmström said that groups such as this one influence the general EU agenda and create the view that immigration is a problem and immigrants are a threat, however this demonization leads to nowhere. She said that “democratic Europe” is obliged to help immigrants and needs them too.
If she could change one thing before her term of office as home affairs commissioner ends, Ms. Malmström said that she would ideally like all EU countries to take a joint European approach to the problem of immigration and agree to all accept refugees.
