EU promises funds, support for migrant crises

BRUSSELS, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- EU Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on Friday said the agency is ready to provide funding and quickly help member states address a recent influx of migrants from Middle Eastern and northern African countries.

Speaking Friday in Brussels, Avramopoulos said he met with officials in Athens about how Greece will use $528.3 million in funding it received from the EU to help incorporate migrants into its population.

Avramopoulos said nearly 50,000 migrants entered the Mediterranean country in July, more in one month than Greece saw in all of 2014. To deal with this, he said Greece should receive its first dispersement of money -- $33.4 million -- in less than a week, and the EU is fast-tracking a request from Greece for $3.05 million in emergency funding.

With the funds, Greece officials said they would send emergency humanitarian aid to the eastern Aegean Islands, which has been hard-hit by the migrant crises. In the past month, some 7,000 refugees arrived at the small island of Kos, where they have been housed at a soccer stadium. Police there have clashed with some of the refugees, who have protested over the conditions.

"I call on all EU Member States to respond quickly to this call and show solidarity with Greece," Avramopoulos said. "We know the situation is not easy. We know the great pressure on the country and the difficulties faced in addressing it. We know that it is not unlinked to the economic situation."

He promised the EU Commission would treat other requests for assistance from countries like Hungary, Austria and France "without delay."

Avramopoulos said "money alone will not solve the problem;" the commission has created an agenda on migration.

"One of the key elements will be making returns more effective and stepping up our cooperation with countries of origin and transit," he said. "To this end, we will hold a summit in Valletta, [Malta], in November with key African countries and international organizations and I will travel to Niger with French Interior Minister [Bernard] Cazeneuve and others to advance on the setting up of a first pilot multi-purpose center.

"There is no simple, nor single, answer to the challenges posed by migration. And nor can any member state effectively address migration alone. It is clear that we need this new, more European approach."