Parliamentary question - O-000329/2011Parliamentary question
O-000329/2011

  The situation of migrants in Greece

15.12.2011

Question for oral answer O-000329/2011
to the Council
Rule 115
Cecilia Wikström, Sonia Alfano, Sophia in 't Veld, Nadja Hirsch, Stanimir Ilchev, Louis Michel, Baroness Sarah Ludford, Jens Rohde, Nathalie Griesbeck, Frédérique Ries, Ramon Tremosa i Balcells, Andrea Zanoni
on behalf of the ALDE Group

Concerns about the asylum situation in Greece are longstanding. The country is made up of islands with borders which are difficult to control, attracting a lot of migrants and asylum seekers. It lacks a functioning asylum reception and processing system (in January 2011, the European Court of Human Rights found Greece guilty of hosting asylum seekers and irregular migrants in degrading conditions) and is currently facing economic problems.

At the end of 2010 the Greek authorities committed to implement a vast reform of their asylum and migration policies and adopted a National Plan on Asylum and Migration Management. According to the first quarterly report from the Commission Task Force for Greece (17 November), some progress has been achieved under the plan, which includes the creation of a support unit for asylum requests, an increased number of favourable answers to asylum requests, and the setting in place of an authority responsible for the oversight of migrants when they arrive.

But more is needed. The humanitarian situation in detention centres in the Evros region, on the border with Turkey, is still very bad according to NGOs like Médecins Sans Frontières and Human Rights Watch and to the Commission. Migrants and asylum seekers continue to be detained in substandard conditions and there is little or no assistance to unaccompanied migrant children. This state of play is not likely to improve as Greece now sees the arrival of around 400 people every day, many of them without any identification documents, which makes the situation even more complicated.

While the Commission has made funding available for Athens, the construction of centres for migrants, for example, is behind schedule and taking longer than expected. The Greek authorities seem to have problems in absorbing the European funds earmarked for improving their asylum system.

What does the Council intend to do to ensure that the Greek authorities use the resources that have been made available to them, spend the resources appropriately and rapidly remedy the humanitarian situation in detention centres in Evros?

Tabled: 15.12.2011

Forwarded: 16.12.2011

Deadline for reply: 13.1.2012