Greek Reporter — German tabloid Bild slammed the member states of the European Union claiming that they had not kept their promises to support Greece with specialized personnel in order to address the refugee crisis. Bild cited a recent report released by the European Commission.
According to Bild only 66 FRONTEX employees arrived in Greece, out of the 1580 that were allocated. Two out of 60 specialists for the return of refugees, 92 of the 475 asylum specialists and 61 of the 400 interpreters had been sent to Greece. Not a single one out of the 30 specialist lawyers that were supposed to help with the lengthy asylum procedures has arrived.
In response, Germany claimed that the reason fewer experts were sent to Greece to aid with the migration crisis than promised is because the EU agencies responsible haven‘t needed them.
Germany was prepared to send the full amount of promised aid, but EU institutions had not requested it, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Tuesday, deferring questions on the reasons why to Brussels.
The commission said Tuesday that the number of officers and experts deployed to Greece from other member states is in line with the country‘s requirements.
“I would urge you not to just look at figures,” said spokeswoman Mina Andreeva, who added: “Our indications are that what is on the ground actually covers the needs.”
Since the agreement between the EU and Turkey took place on March 18, only 849 refugees have been able to relocate from Greece to other EU countries and 468 were sent back to Turkey.
Editing /additional material YXamonakis
