EU Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on Friday said the agency is ready to provide funding and quickly help member states address a recent influx of migrants from Middle Eastern and Northern African countries.
Speaking on Friday in Brussels, Avramopoulos said he met with officials in Athens about how Greece will use $528.3 million in funding it received from the EU to help incorporate migrants into its population, Albawaba reported.
He said nearly 50,000 migrants entered the Mediterranean country in July, more in one month than Greece saw in all of 2014.
To deal with this, he said Greece should receive its first tranche of aid, $33.4 million, in less than a week, and the EU is fast-tracking a request from Greece for $3.05 million in emergency funding.
With the funds, Greek officials said they would send emergency humanitarian aid to the eastern Aegean Islands, which has been hit by the migrant crises.
In the past month, some 7,000 refugees arrived at the small island of Kos, where they have been housed at a soccer stadium. Police there have clashed with some of the refugees, who have protested over the conditions.
However, Avramopoulos said “money alone will not solve the problem,” adding that one of the key elements will be “making returns more effective and stepping up our cooperation with countries of origin and transit.”
