Ohisalo: "It is very important that EU member states support Greece"
Finnish Minister of the Interior, Maria Ohisalo, made a call on Wednesday to the European Union (EU) member states to "support Greece in its efforts to manage the external border and to deal with difficult migration situation". At the Turkish and Greek border.
On the Greek-Turkish border, tens of thousands of asylum seekers have been crowding for days seeking an entry route to the EU, after the Turkish government announced last week they would no longer stop them when trying to reach Europe.
Some of those refugees claim that they have even been taken by bus from Istanbul to the border and then abandoned to their fate by the Turkish authorities. In their attempts to cross the border or reach Greece by sea, they have met the forcefulness of the Greek police and coast guard.
The Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo will attend an extraordinary meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 4 March. The home affairs ministers of EU member states will meet in Brussels to discuss the current situation at the Greek-Turkish border.
“It is very important that the EU Member States work together to support Greece in its efforts to manage the external border and to deal with the difficult migration situation at the Greek-Turkish border. Fundamental and human rights and international obligations must be respected in all EU activities,” says Ohisalo.
"The EU countries in the Mediterranean region play a key role in managing migration to Europe," Finnish Government said in a press release.
Finland supports Mediterranean countries
To alleviate the humanitarian situation of asylum seekers in the Mediterranean countries at the external borders, the Government decided at the end of February that Finland would receive 175 asylum seekers from the Mediterranean region.
Finland will receive primarily unaccompanied minors and single-parent families who are likely to have grounds for international protection and who come from countries where security is particularly poor, such as Syria and Afghanistan.
Asylum seekers could be relocated from Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Italy, depending on where the situation is the most serious.
'Poseidon' joint operation
The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) will continue to participate in the operations of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) with four experts in 2020. The experts support the national asylum process in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta by conducting asylum interviews and making recommendations for decisions.
The Finnish Border Guard, in turn, supports external border control in Greece through Frontex.
A joint operation, Poseidon, is under way at the Greek-Turkish sea border, in which the Border Guard has a patrol boat and a total of 14 border guards deployed in different positions. Border Guard personnel are deployed in Frontex operations not only in Greece but also in Italy, Albania and Bulgaria.
Greece has also requested material assistance through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, in particular tents, mobile toilet and sanitary facilities and first aid equipment and supplies. Finland is currently examining the possibility of sending assistance to Greece. This could include, for example tents and blankets.