Meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in the EP in Brussels, on the Implementation of the Hotspots in Greece. Statements by Maarten VERWEY, European Commission, Anthi KARANGELI, Greek authorities' hotspot coordinator in Moria - Lesvos, Lani FORTIER, International Rescue Committee, Monika HOHLMEIER (EPP, DE), Birgit SIPPEL (S&D, DE), Cornelia ERNST (GUE/NGL, DE) and Tanja FAJON (S&D, SI).

Brussels

statement

meeting

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

SIPPEL, Birgit (S&D, DE)

FAJON, Tanja (S&D, SI)

HOHLMEIER, Monika (EPP, DE)

ERNST, Cornelia (The Left, DE)

Implementation of the Hotspots in Greece: extracts from the presentation by DG HOME, EASO and Frontex representatives

Exterior shot of the European Parliament building in Brussels

SOUNDBITE (English), Maarten VERWEY, European Commission , "Lesbos, currently, this is the only place which we consider functionally an operational hotspot. In other areas I should say that there is registration taking place but it's not yet in the structured approach that we would like to see".  

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Anthi KARANGELI, Greek authorities' hotspot coordinator in Moria - Lesvos, "We cannot have a good system of asylum and relocation unless we realize that the gate to Europe isn't Greece, that the real gateway here is Turkey."

SOUNDBITE (English), Lani FORTIER, International Rescue Committee, "The conditions for refugees in Lesbos this year were among the worst I've ever seen. Throughout September, October and November arrivals have remained high and the registration systems on Lesbos did not have the capacity to manage the inflows".

SOUNDBITE (German), Monika HOHLMEIER (EPP, DE), "How much personnel would it be required in order to gain control of the situation, not only when it comes to registration but also in terms of food for refugees, which needs to be guaranteed and that surely must not be provided alone by the EU but by the member states too. And what should the burden sharing be like between Frontex and Greece?"

SOUNDBITE (German), Birgit SIPPEL (S&amp;D, DE), What will if all the refugees are registered in Greece and none of them continue to move irregularly but the European relocation doesn't enter into force?  

SOUNDBITE (German), Cornelia ERNST (GUE/NGL, DE), "Someone said here that a full 30 people have been relocated. Bravo EU! That's all I can cynically say".

SOUNDBITE (English), Tanja FAJON (S&amp;D, SI), "Will we see another failure in our migration policy, thinking that we have a relocation mechanism so far and we are not seing any results and now we have the idea of hotspots and, again, we are not seing results?"

SOUNDBITE (English), Maarten VERWEY, European Commission, "Already under the various national programmes, Greece has available nearly half a billion in funds. The reality, however, has been that it's been very difficult for Greece to access to it because of certain administrative procedures that still needed to be put in place so that, that took some time".  