18/11/14
Accessibility tools
Service tools
Language selector
Navigation path
Left navigation
Additional tools
25 October 2010
Greece has been having difficulties for a long time in dealing with the large number of people who comes there from countries outside of Europe. Many get stuck in Greece while waiting for Greek authorities to process their asylum applications and other documents. At the same time, migrants continue to arrive from mainly Africa and the Middle East. Lately, the number of people entering the EU via the Greek land border with Turkey has increased drastically. This weekend, the Greek government requested EU support to be able to deal with the situation.
"The humanitarian situation is very difficult and Greece does not have the capacity for the procedures needed in order to identify those who could be in need of international protection", says EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström who is responsible for asylum and migration issues on an EU level.
Read Cecilia Malmström's statement in full.
