Greece seeks EU disaster relief to tackle migrant flows

Brussels (dpa) - Greece asked the European Union on Thursday for emergency resources to cope with the flows of migrants that have been moving through the country in an effort to reach Western Europe.Europe is contending with its largest population movement since World War II, with more than 900,000 migrants arriving by land and sea this year.Most make their way from Turkey to Greece before continuing through the western Balkans to reach wealthy northern European countries such as Germany and Sweden, straining resources and overwhelming authorities in countries of transit.The European Commission announced Thursday that Athens had activated the EU‘s civil protection mechanism, originally set up for member states and some candidate countries to seek non-financial aid in the wake of disasters."Greece has activated the civil protection mechanism to ask for in-kind assistance to help tackle refugee crisis," commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud wrote on Twitter.It was not immediately clear what sort of assistance Athens has requested.Frontex, the EU‘s border protection agency, said in a statement on Thursday that it would deploy additional officers to assist Greece with the registration of migrants at its border with Macedonia.The agency already helps Greece with identifying and registering migrants who arrive on its islands, which have been overwhelmed by arrivals in recent months.Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia have also turned to the civil protection mechanism for help in conjunction with the refugee crisis and have received everything from heated tents, generators and sleeping bags to raincoats and rubber boots from other EU member states.Brussels had long been pushing Greece to turn to the scheme for help.The move comes amid a debate in the EU on whether Greece is failing to properly control its borders, which also happen to be external borders of Europe‘s free-travel Schengen area.The Schengen border code foresees that member states may be required to reintroduce controls at internal Schengen frontiers for up to two years, if "serious deficiencies in the carrying out of external border control are identified."There have been media reports that this could be used to suspend Greece from the Schengen area. There have long been complaints about the country letting migrants transit through unchecked.The issue of Schengen border controls is expected to be discussed by EU interior ministers in Brussels on Friday.