Brussels, 19/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 19 April, the European Commission announced €83 million under the new Emergency Assistance Instrument (EURO ECHO) for funding eight projects for improving living conditions for refugees stranded in Greece,.
EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides, also signed the first financing contracts in Athens on Tuesday, with representatives from eight humanitarian organisations and EURO ECHO partners on the ground.
The funds are immediately available and will help to provide a stopgap and cover the most urgent needs of thousands of refugees and migrants crowded into the camps, by guaranteeing the most vulnerable of them access to basic health care, food and hygiene products. They will also be used to fund the setting up of areas for children, education and building temporary shelters.
At the end of a meeting with the Greek Alternate Minister responsible for Migration Policy, Mr Ioannis Mouzalas, the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides, stated "At the very moment we're speaking, more than 50,000 refugees are in Greece. The refugee crisis is not a Greek crisis. It is a European issue which requires a European solution".
The assistance will be channelled by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, six NGOs (the International Rescue Committee, Danish Refugee Council, Médecins du Monde, Oxfam, Save the Children and the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund), which are working in close cooperation with Greek NGOs.
On Tuesday, a journalist asked how the Commission hoped to be able to provide decent living conditions to migrants and refugees crowded into the "detention camps. The European Commission Spokesperson, Margaritis Schinas, explained that this emergency aid was intended to go to people not camps.
The aid mobilised by EURO ECHO comes on top of the €181 million in emergency aid already spent under the Asylum, Migration, Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF) to help manage the refugee crisis. In 2016 EURO ECHO is expected to spend €300 million on refugees in Greece out of the initial €700 million budget proposed by the Commission, as part of this instrument's envelope for 2016-18. (see EUROPE 11524 and 11512) (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)