Monday, August 10, 2015

European Commission Approves 2.4 Billion Euros Funding for Migration Crisis

The European Commission has announced it approved this month 23 multiannual national programs with a total funding of approximately €2.4 billion for the period 2014-2015, that will to flow to frontline member states such as Greece and Italy, and to other EU member states also dealing with high migratory flows.

Over 110,000 migrants have arrived in Hungary this year, nearly all walking across the southern border with Serbia. Most of them come from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other war-torn regions. Very often they request asylum in Hungary but most attempt to continue toward richer countries like Germany or the Netherlands further west in the European Union before their claims are settled.

The daily number of migrants who were caught by police in an attempt to cross the border has been raising steadily. Since mid-July the police rarely caught less than 1,500 refugees a day on the border. It was around 300 in April and 400 in May. According to Prime Minister Viktor Orban the 4-meter high fence being built there by the Hungarian army will be finished by Aug. 31.

The fence should stop the influx of migrants to the country. So far, neither the first sections of the fence nor the presence of the soldiers seem to discourage the migrants. State media reported 18 migrants had been caught overnight after cutting through the fence near the Hungarian village of Asotthalom where construction began last week. “It is not enough that illegal immigrants are crossing the country’s border unlawfully, on top of it all they are damaging property of the Hungarian state,” Fidesz parliamentary group leader Antal Rogan said in a statement. Fidesz wants the migrants to be “punished in an exemplary manner,” including prison sentences. Rogan said Fidesz would seek to make cutting the fence a crime punishable by jail as soon as parliament returns in September from the summer break.

Greece has become the most used entry point in Europe for migrants. Nearly 50,000 migrants arrived in the EU via Greece in July alone, compared with 41,700 in all of 2014. According to the Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras the country is overwhelmed by its immigration problems as the country battles an economic crisis and the EU is not doing enough to help. Tsipras deplored the insistence of some European countries that the distribution of refugees among them to be voluntary rather than obligatory. “The principle of solidarity cannot be addressed a la carte and in a voluntary fashion by a series of countries,” he said.

The Commission is working towards a swift approval of the remaining national programmes. 22 national programmes were already approved in March, and an additional 13 programmes will be approved later this year.

   [neurope.eu]
10/8/15
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