Brussels, 14/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 14 December, the European Commission and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched a programme to “provide asylum seekers and relocation candidates with an additional 20,000 hosting places in Greece, by means of housing subsidies in the private sector”, the Commission announced in a press release. The Commission has provided financing of €80 million from the Union budget for 2016 to this end, it states.
This agreement comes in the framework of the commitment taken by Greece and the UNHCR at the mini-summit on the Western Balkans on 25 October this year, which saw the two parties undertake to create a total of 50,000 places (a further 50,000 places will be created along the Balkans route).
The UNHCR will provide 20,000 hosting places through the systems of subsidies for host homes and families. These places will make it possible to “offer temporary housing in Greece to people awaiting relocation to other member states of the EU”, the Commission explains. “As regards the hotspots, construction work will be undertaken by the Greek authorities, but this agreement provides that the UNHCR will also contribute to the creation of these with advice from UNHCR personnel, the acquisition of supplies and construction work if necessary”, the press release goes on to state.
The total envelope earmarked for the management of the refugee crisis and taken from the Union's 2015 and 2016 budgets stands at €10 billion. The cost of this programme in 2016 will come from an envelope of more than €4 billion from the Union budget. More than 750,000 third-country nationals arrived in Greece in 2015. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)