EU Border Agency Frontex will start urgent intervention at Greece’s external borders due to the flow of migrants from Turkey, the organization said in a statement released Monday.
Turkey, after the deteriorating situation in Idlib, Syria, said it could no longer contain the flow of migrants and refugees and has opened its borders to the EU. Over the past three days, about 20,000 attempts to breach the border have been stopped. There are hundreds of police officers at the border and army units have been tightened.
Greece requires the European Union (under Article 78 (3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU) to take measures “in the context of solidarity among the Member States of the European Union” in response to the emergency situation in Greece due to the influx of third country nationals. Article 78, paragraph 3, states that in an emergency situation caused by a sudden influx of migrants, the EU Council of Ministers may take special measures to support the affected countries.
“The Executive Director of Frontex has agreed today to launch urgent border intervention to help Greece cope with the large number of migrants at its external borders. Yesterday evening, the Greek government officially asked Frontex to launch an urgent border intervention at its maritime borders in the Aegean Sea”, – it said.
The Agency specifies that “the rapid border intervention is designed to provide immediate assistance to an EU member state, which is under exceptional pressure at its external border, especially as a large number of non-EU citizens are attempting to illegally enter its territory.
“Given the rapidly evolving situation on Greece’s external borders with Turkey, I have decided to accept the urgent border intervention requested by Greece. This is part of Frontex’s mandate to assist a Member State facing an exceptional situation by requesting urgent support from officers and equipment from all EU member states and Schengen-associated countries”, – Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri said in a statement.
The report notes that Frontex has already expanded surveillance capabilities at the Greek borders and is transferring officers from other operations to provide immediate assistance.
“Frontex is now working closely with Greece to rapidly complete an operational plan for rapid border intervention. As soon as the plan is agreed, Frontex will request other EU member states and Schengen-associated countries to immediately provide border guards and other relevant personnel from the rapid response pool, specifying the appropriate profiles and number of officers from each,” it said.
The planned activities are expected to be based on “a rapid reaction pool of 1,500 officers and equipment from EU Member States and Schengen-associated countries, which should provide officers and staff within five days and equipment within 10 days.
In mid-March 2016, the EU Heads of State and Government agreed with Turkey on a joint plan to combat the migration crisis. It provides, among other things, financial assistance to Ankara for the reception of refugees, the return to Turkey of all illegal immigrants who came to Greece from Turkish territory, and the EU reception of legal Syrians from Turkey on a “one for one” basis.