EU will offer 2,000 euros to migrants stranded on Greek islands to go home
LONDON — Thousands of migrants who have been stranded on Greek islands will be offered 2,000 euros ($2,230) to return to their home countries, the European Union said, in an attempt to ease overcrowding in the camps and lighten the burden on Greece, which has faced an influx of arrivals in recent weeks.
During a visit to Athens, the European Union’s commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson, said she hoped that up to 5,000 migrants would participate in the program.
“This is an opportunity to release a bit of the pressure on the islands and for the other people that are still in the camps,” Ms. Johansson said.
The program will remain open for a month and will be available only to those who arrived in Greece before Jan. 1.
But even if thousands take up the offer, the announcement appears limited, as tens of thousands of migrants remain in Greece — including more than 40,000 on five islands, including Lesbos and Samos, where they live in squalid conditions.
More than 40,000 people arrived in Greece in the last quarter of 2019, according to U.N. data, most of them by sea.
The plan offered by the EU and put in place with the International Organization for Migration won’t apply to the thousands of migrants who also reached Greece after Turkey opened its border last month. The move prompted Greek authorities to deploy its military, suspend new asylum applications, and even round up and summarily expel migrants.
The mood among Greek authorities and the country’s citizens over the migrant influx has shifted since 2015, when Greeks showed compassion and generosity as more than 1 million asylum-seekers reached Europe.
On the border islands, such as Lesbos, residents have set up roadblocks to prevent migrants from reaching camps, when civilian patrols don’t round them up. Villagers have attacked aid workers and journalists who have been seen as helping migrants.
Although Greek authorities welcomed the announcement Thursday, they have in recent weeks urged the European Union to provide more support, including that other member states handle asylum-seekers directly and process applications so that Greece’s own asylum system doesn’t remain clogged up.