Brussels: The EU announced yesterday that it has approved ¤2.4bn ($2.6bn) of funding to help member states over the next few years cope with the flood of migrants entering the bloc.
Officials said the money will help frontline states like Italy and debt-hit Greece — which complained last week it cannot cope — build reception centres and integrate migrants.
The funds are also designed to help member states better monitor their borders and boost programmes to deport migrants who are refused entry.
“We are now able to disburse funding,” Natasha Bertaud, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, told a press conference.
“It will provide crucial support to frontline member states,” she added as the commission said it had worked with member states to ensure the funds are “released urgently”.
The commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, said Italy will receive ¤558m and Greece ¤478m in funds allocated from 2014 to 2020.
Spain will receive ¤521.8m, Sweden ¤154m, Hungary ¤61.4m, Bulgaria ¤72.7m, Cyprus ¤74m, Austria ¤26.5m, Estonia ¤35.2m, Finland ¤52.9m and Ireland ¤9.2m.
Lithuania was allocated ¤17.2m, Luxembourg ¤7.5m, Malta ¤74.6m, Poland ¤69.3m, Portugal ¤38.6m, Romania ¤98.4m, Slovakia ¤13m and Slovenia ¤41m.
EU officials told AFP that Greece will “soon” receive a first instalment of ¤33m after it set up an authority to manage the funds.
The United Nations warned Friday that migrants landing in Greece were facing “shameful” conditions as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras claimed Athens was unable to cope with the massive influx on its Aegean islands.
Some 124,000 people, almost all of them fleeing war and persecution in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, have come ashore since the beginning of the year — a 750-percent increase from the same period last year, the UN refugee agency said.
Italian Church slams politicians
Meanwhile, high-ranking members of the Italian Church yesterday slammed politicians who peddle anti-immigrant ideas to win votes — sparking a heated row with Italy’s right wing.
“We here hear talk of the ‘unbearable’ number of asylum seekers, an attitude that is unfortunately fed by these salesmen” who are merely pandering to voters, Nunzio Galantino, secretary general of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), said in an interview on Vatican Radio.
The head of the anti-immigration Northern League party, Matteo Salvini, was quick to lash out at the Roman Catholic Church, saying “those who defend this illegal invasion, which is ruining Italy, either don’t understand or are making money” from the migrant arrivals.
AFP
