Brussels, 20/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - Under fire from its critics, particularly Germany, over its management of illegal immigration, the Greek minister for the protection of the citizens, Christos Papoutsis, reiterated at Thursday's informal meeting of the justice and home affairs ministers (JHA) in Gödöllõ the “determination” of his government to build a barrier on its border with Turkey to prevent the influx of new illegal immigrants onto its territory, and to find “a European solution” to this problem, as the missions of the borders agency Frontex, notably RABIT, have proved “effective” but insufficient, the minister said.
On Wednesday, Germany sent out two fairly unequivocal messages to Greece. Some MEPs of the CDU group first of all asked for Greece to withdraw from the Schengen area, as they felt it was incapable of managing its borders and stemming the flow of illegal immigrants. On the same day, de Maizière, the German minister for the interior, announced that he was suspending for one year returns of asylum seekers to Greece, to help the country to improve its conditions for retaining illegal immigrants on its territory and dealing with the current “worrying” and very “difficult” situation.
But on Thursday morning, de Maizière ruled out any idea of Greece leaving the Schengen area, as there is “no legal basis” to do so, he explained. In Gödöllõ, the Greek minister therefore had to stand firm and provide commitments both on the national reforms underway in terms of asylum application procedures, as Germany had asked it to improve the conditions under which asylum seekers are housed, and on the illegal immigration plank. On this second subject, Papoutsis was able to hold a meeting on Thursday morning with the Turkish home affairs minister, Besir Atalay, who had also been invited to the informal meeting in the framework of a general discussion on border management. Amongst other things, the two men bilaterally discussed the Greek barrier plan and after their talks, reiterated their perfect “understanding” and the complete lack of tension between the two countries.
The barrier is not, however, to the liking of all member states, particularly Belgium, which feels that “it is not a solution"”, as Melchior Wathelet put it, questioning the future of the RABIT mission, which is due to end on 1 March. The European Commission was today discussing the issue of extending Frontex missions, but did not formally refer to RABIT. And as one source explained, some member states “will be wondering whether the money made available to Frontex missions will not end up paying for the Greek barrier project”.
In the meantime, in de Maizière's view, Greece has a “special responsibility” to tighten up its border controls, he added, and “if a wall helps, I will not be criticising it from the German point of view”. (S.P./transl.fl)