Natasha Bertaud

English site Guardian is highly critical of the Greek government in dealing the refugees exposed to arctic weather conditions on the island of Lesvos:
From the Guardian:

The European Commission says conditions for refugees on Greek islands and in other camps where they are housed in tents despite severe cold weather, is "untenable."

Heavy snowfall has hit large swaths of Greece, including the eastern Aegean islands where thousands of refugees are stranded.

Despite the Greek government’s reassurances that refugees in the hotspot of Moria on the island of Lesvos would be protected by the extreme weather conditions that have descended on the country, new video footage reveals a contradictory reality.

The EUR 108 M that EU leaders decided to grant to Bulgaria last week are not allocated to the construction of new border fences or work on existing ones, a EU Commission official has said.

A year after the European Union launched its refugee sharing plan so member countries could help overwhelmed Greece and Italy less than five percent of the migrants have been relocated.

European Commission figures show that only 4,473 asylum seekers were relocated as of September 1.

One day after a senior German official suggested that his country could send migrants back to Greece, the European Commission on Monday urged Greece to implement the so-called Dublin Regulation.

The agreement, which is currently under review, stipulates that migrants who have traveled on to other nations in the bloc via Greece be returned to Greece.

The European Commission is making contingency plans to deal with a potential humanitarian crisis in Greece, European Commission spokesperson Natasha Bertaud said on Friday.

“At this time we are preparing an emergency plan, ‘a humanitarian aid mechanism’ in order to avoid a humanitarian crisis in Greece,” she said.

The European Commission spokesperson Natasha Bertaud stated that EU was informed about the meeting to take place in Vienna among the countries of the Western Balkans route, but it was not invited.

The European Commission does not consider that Greece’s border with FYROM is fully closed, as according to EU spokesperson on immigration, Natasha Bertaud, the countries of Western Balkans continue being open to a dialogue and European Commission “continues acting as a coordinator between them”.

The European Commission said Jan. 26 that it may eventually allow member states of the passport-free Schengen zone to reintroduce border checks for up to two years to cope with the migration crisis.

At a meeting in Amsterdam on Jan. 25 EU interior ministers had asked the Commission - the executive arm of the 28-nation European Union - about the possibility of extending the checks.