1st LD Writethru: EU official disappointed about progress of relocation scheme for asylum seekers

Efforts of European Union (EU) member states to relocate migrants in need of international protection are disappointing, a European commissioner said Friday.

According to European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos, relocation from Greece needed to happen urgently.

"So far, only 1,581 persons in need of international protection have been relocated from Greece and Italy," Avramopoulos said, following a meeting of the EU's Justice and Home Affairs Council.

"Tens of thousands of people continue to remain stranded in Greece and the situation on the ground will not improve in the coming months," he said, adding there was no alternative or plan B.

In the meantime, Avramopoulos said, the number of arrivals to the Greek islands continued to decrease. In addition, returns to Turkey have also increased. In parallel, the number of resettlements from Turkey continues to increase as member states finalize their assessments of applications referred to them by Turkey, via the UNHCR.

He noted the European Commission on Friday had awarded 56 million euros (63 million U.S. dollars) in emergency funding for Greece to improve the conditions of migrants and help Greek authorities register newly arriving migrants and process their asylum claims.

"But we also cannot forget about Italy where we have seen a recent rise in migratory flows. Here too, relocation is essential, as well as increasing reception capacities and increasing returns or those who have no right to stay," he said.

He said ministers during the meeting delivered on the relocation scheme fully, swiftly, and collectively.

Moreover, he stressed it was essential to step-up efforts and resettle Syrian refugees under the 1-to-1 scheme with Turkey.

"The irregular migratory corridors can only end if people are offered a genuine and legal alternative," Avramopoulos said.

Under the EU-Turkey agreement struck on March 18, for every Syrian national returned from Greece to Turkey, another will be resettled to the EU directly from Turkey, a move which aims to deter migrants from traveling in dangerous conditions across the Aegean Sea by offering instead an orderly and legal resettlement process.

Based on Commission proposals, EU member states agreed last September to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece, and to assist the two countries in dealing with the pressures of the refugee crisis.

During the meeting, the ministers also discussed visa policy and exchanged views on several migration-related issues. The Council agreed its negotiating position on revised rules that make it easier to suspend visa waiver scheme with third countries.

According to Klaas Dijkhoff, Dutch State Secretary of Security and Justice and Minister for Migration, the new visa waiver suspension mechanism to be negotiated with the European Parliament offers more grounds to suspend like readmission and asylum claims and also contains a permanent monitoring system to ensure that countries keep fulfilling the criteria for visa freedom.

The Commission can act on its own to trigger the mechanism.

"The new mechanism against abuse of VISA freedom will be much stronger than the current system and I look forward to working with the European parliament to realize this soon," said Dijkoff. Endit