UN, EU launch scheme to house 20,000 asylum seekers in Greece
The European Union and the UN refugee agency on Monday launched a joint programme in Athens to create 20,000 places for asylum seekers eligible for relocation in the bloc and in Greece.
Cash-strapped Greece has so far spent nearly 2.0 billion euros ($1.5 billion) on managing the migration wave in 2015, and expects to receive 450 million euros from the EU in coming months.
"Today we stand in solidarity with Greece and with children, women and men seeking refuge in Europe. The scheme we are launching offers EU budgetary support for families, notably providing them with adequate shelter," said EU's vice-president for budget and human resources Kristalina Georgieva.
The EU will provide 80 million euros for the programme, which involves housing the asylum seekers in homes through rent subsidy and host family schemes.
Georgieva said the scheme would allow "people to be allocated in small groups... so to be more socially acceptable."
She said she was confident that 30,000 other such places would be created in Greece by January in camps and migrant centres.
"While today's agreement is about temporary assistance, the Commission continues to use the full range of tools at our disposal to find a long-term solution to the refugee crisis in Europe," Georgieva said.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Assistant High Commissioner for Operations George Okoth-Obbo warned that "the whole scheme can be successful only if it is accompanied by large scale emergency reception, assistance and registration efforts in the countries most impacted by arrivals."
More than 800,000 migrants and refugees have landed on Greece's shores this year, according to the International Organization for Migration, with most hoping to reach western or northern Europe.
But thousands have been blocked in Greece following a decision by several European nations to only allow transit through their borders to refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Greece, in economic crisis for the past five years, says it plans to repatriate what it calls economic migrants as it lacks the capacity to accommodate them.