Brussels, 30/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 30 June, European Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos proposed Commission aid to Hungary to help it cope with the influx of migrants.
With migrants coming in through Greece and Bulgaria and onwards, Hungary has seen some of the highest arrivals of migrants since the start of 2015, according to Frontex, which says 50,000 illegal migrants have been detected between January and the end of May this year. This is a rise of 880% compared with the same period in 2014. Where previously most migrants were from Kosovo, they are now arriving from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
Visiting Budapest, Commissioner Avramopoulos told Home Affairs Minister Sandor Pinter and Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto that the Commission was ready to deploy “hotspot teams” (the mechanism was presented in May in the European Agenda on Migration) to help in the processing of asylum requests and help with the return of irregular migrants.
As part of the “hotspot” initiative, which is also to be rolled out in Italy and Greece, experts from Europol, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and Frontex will deployed on the ground to help the Hungarian authorities register, fingerprint and interview the migrants to make sure that all the asylum requests are genuine, the Commission says. The Commission will also provide more than €8 million in financial support and has activated the EU civil protection mechanism to provide assistance with tents to temporarily house refugees.
Emergency relocation of 40,000 asylum seekers having been agreed in principle by EU heads of state and/or government last week, the commissioner said again that account would be taken of Hungary's very specific situation. Some observers suggest that this means that the country will be allowed to take in fewer migrants than the Commission had originally allocated it. Bulgaria is likely, too, to be treated as a special case, the European Council suggested in its conclusions. (Solenn Paulic)