Brussels, 01/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - European Immigration Commissioner Jacques Barrot, speaking in Athens on Tuesday 30 June, committed financial aid to Turkey to help it tackle illegal migration. “We will do our utmost to persuade Turkey to reduce illegal migration, and for that we will provide financial aid to Turkey,” AFP reports Barrot as saying at a press conference. The commissioner also pressed Ankara to act against the traffickers who sent migrants to Greece. “We cannot accept that Turkey shuts its eyes to traffickers who are exploiting people wanting to come to the EU, and who charge them a great deal of money,” he said, highlighting the likely “complicity between illegal migration networks and the local authorities” of the countries from which the migrants leave. “We have no proof, but we know that as soon as there is a desire to stop the traffickers and this traffic, when there is a definite will to stop the migration, there is a clear slow-down” he said. Barrot also called on Turkey to better control its eastern border and to apply the re-admission agreement with Greece. The commissioner pointed out that the EU was continuing to help Turkey on “re-admission agreements with other countries, particularly in Asia, Pakistan for example”. Barrot also said that he was counting on the Swedish Presidency to make sure that the amendment to the Dublin Regulation would be put into practice by the end of the year. He said that “this will mean that it will be possible to hear asylum requests in member states other than the country of arrival, which would help Greece greatly”. Barrot also promised “more funding for Greece to cope with this problem” by the end of the year, along with the creation of an EU support office and a stepping up of Frontex, the European borders agency, operations in the Aegean Sea. (B.C./transl.rt)