Brussels, 04/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Sunday 3 October 2010 during a visit to Alexandropolis, a city close to the border with Turkey in north-east Greece, Greek Citizen Protection Minister, Christos Papoutsis, said that Greece would be taking measures to combat illegal immigration and called on the European Union to take initiatives and provide aid. He called on the EU to take its responsibilities to Greece seriously because Greece is the country in the EU under the greatest pressure from immigration, referring to the fact that it borders on Turkey. The minister said he would be asking for more FRONTEX observers to be sent (FRONTEX is the EU's external border surveillance agency) so that FRONTEX can hold responsible the countries involved in illegal immigration. Papoutsis was commenting two days after the opening by FRONTEX of its first regional centre, in Athens, which will monitor the external borders of Greece, Italy, Malta and Cyprus. On a recent visit to Greece, EU Internal Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said that the EU was prepared to provide financial aid to Greece to help it reform its asylum seeker system, which does not yet give any rights to asylum seekers (see EUROPE 10224). (B.C. transl.fl)