"Serious deficiencies" exist in Greece's external border management: EU Commission

The European Commission here on Wednesday discussed a draft Schengen Evaluation Report on Greece, which said Greece is seriously neglecting its obligations and that there are serious deficiencies in the carrying out of external border controls.

According to the Commission, the draft report -- which was not public -- was based on unannounced site visits to the Greek-Turkish land border and to Chios and Samos conducted from Nov. 10-13 in 2015.

The report looked at the presence of police and coast guard personnel on the inspected sites, the efficiency of the identification and registration process, sea border surveillance and cooperation with neighboring countries.

"Whilst acknowledging that the Greek authorities are under pressure, the report notably finds that there is no effective identification and registration of irregular migrants and that fingerprints are not being systematically entered into the system and travel documents are not being systematically checked for the authenticity or against crucial security databases," said the draft report.

According to the Commission, the draft Schengen evaluation report for Greece, drawn up jointly by Member States experts and Commission representatives, will now be sent to the Schengen Evaluation Committee which will give its opinion.

The report will then be adopted by the Commission by means of an implementing act.

The Schengen evaluation mechanism, established in October 2013, provides for the verification of the application of the Schengen rules through monitoring visits to a given Member State by Commission-led teams with experts from Member States and Frontex. Endit