Greece calls for EU help as 'migrant wave triples'
(ATHENS) - Greece warned Thursday of a "dramatic" rise in migrants trying to cross its borders, with the number attempting to cross the Aegean Sea set to triple this year.
Athens said it needs an extra 63 million euros ($83 million) in EU funds to cope with the wave, echoing Italy's calls for help to stem an even larger immigration surge.
"The number of migrants has increased significantly in the last eight months...we are facing a great challenge," Merchant Marine Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis told a news conference.
The Greek ministry said that the number of undocumented migrants intercepted in the Aegean had more than tripled between 2012 and 2013, exceeding 10,500 last year.
This year it is expected to exceed 31,000 people.
Similarly, the number of migrant drownings has also increased from 28 in 2013 to 48 this year.
Varvitsiotis argued that overstretch Greek operational capabilities were likely to cause more migrant deaths at sea.
"We have reached our limits, the risk is to have more incidents at sea," the minister said.
In addition to patrol assistance from EU border agency Frontex, Greece has been allocated 71 million euros by Brussels for a period running from 2007 to 2015, Varvitsiotis said.
But the minister insisted on Thursday that this money had been used to upgrade coastguard equipment and was not intended to cover increasing personnel requirements.
"EU financial aid is for equipment but the needs for daily operations are higher," Varvitsiotis said.
"We have asked for extra funds but unfortunately our request has not been met," he said.
Greece is one of the main points of entry into the European Union for people fleeing war-torn and impoverished countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.
Many of the recent arrivals are escaping civil war in Syria.
People traffickers are increasingly using Greece's Aegean islands to smuggle migrants into Europe after the building of a fence and tighter controls along its land border with Turkey.