European Border and Coast Guard

The Commission is not currently going to respond to Greece's request for financing the activity of the Greek Coast Guard to the tune of 15.8 million euros.

The number of migrants illegally entering the European Union by crossing the Western Balkans has almost doubled this year, EU border agency Frontex said on Thursday, with the majority coming from Syria and Afghanistan, Reuters reported.

The Turkish Coast Guard rescued 5,693 irregular migrants, most of whom were pushed back by Greece, from the Aegean and Mediterranean seas in the first half of 2021.

The EU is looking to plug a big gap in migration policy by boosting measures to have irregular migrants voluntarily returned to their countries under a strategy adopted on Tuesday (27 April).

UN agencies are pressing the European Union to end the growing practices of denying migrants their right to apply for asylum, collectively expelling them and using violence against people trying to enter the bloc without authorization.

Frontex's decision followed the Hungarian government's non-compliance with the latest judgement from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) that ruled "pushbacks" at the Hungarian-Serbian border were unlawful, Frontex spokesperson Chris Borowski told hvg.hu.

The board of directors of the European border agency Frontex, which met on Wednesday and Thursday, has decided to further investigate five of 13 reported cases of illegal migrants pushbacks last year, with the alleged help of Frontex guards, from Greece into Turkish territorial waters in the eastern Aegean.

Frontex notes that the number of detections of illegal border crossings along the EU’s external borders fell 13% last year to around 124,000

Greece has submitted a request to the European Commission and the EU's border agency Frontex, for the immediate return of 1,450 migrants whose asylum requests have been rejected, the country's Migration Ministry announced on Thursday.

From the 1,450 individuals that entered Greece from Turkey 995 are in Lesvos, 180 in Chios, 128 in Samos and 187 in Kos, the ministry said.

Turkey's interior minister urged the EU on Dec. 21 to hold Greece responsible for its "murders" of asylum seekers.  

"Dear [European Commissioner for Home Affairs] @YlvaJohansson, Torture and inhumane treatment by Greece has now turned into murder. Won't Greece be held responsible for these murders ignored by @Frontex?" Süleyman Soylu said on Twitter.