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EU announces 700mn-euro plan to assist refugees

Wednesday, 02 March 2016 3:49 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 02 March 2016 4:39 PM ]

The file photo shows the European Union flags outside its headquarters in Brussels.

The European Union (EU) has announced a plan to provide Greece and other members of the 28-state bloc with a total of 700 million euros in humanitarian assistance to help with the unprecedented wave of refugees arriving in the continent.

EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides said on Wednesday that the humanitarian aid would be distributed over the next three years.

"No time can be lost in deploying all means possible to prevent humanitarian suffering within our own borders. Today's proposal will make 700 million euros ($760 million) available to provide help where it is most needed," the EU official said.

According to Stylianides, 300 million euros will be given to these states this year and 200 million in each of the next two following years.

If the plan proposed by the European Commission is approved by member states and the European Parliament, it will be the bloc’s first such aid distribution within Europe.

The aid plan is expected to be coordinated with the United Nations and other aid agencies.

A man and a woman help a child board a train as refugees prepare to travel to Serbia after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border near the town of Gevgelija, Macedonia, February 18, 2016. (AFP photo)

Greece, which is the main entry point for refuges, has already requested 480 million euros ($520 million) in aid for some 100,000 shelter refugees. It is not known how much aid will be put aside for Athens.

The UN Refugee Agency had recently called for better accommodation for refugees stuck in Greece, warning that the build-up of refugees at Greece's northern borders risks creating a humanitarian disaster.

Last month, Amnesty International slammed the EU's response to the refugee crisis as shameful. The rights group criticized the EU by saying "the richest bloc in the world" had failed to take care of some of the most basic rights of "some of the most persecuted people in the world."

Some 1.3 million refugees, most fleeing war and violence in the Middle East and African countries, have entered the EU since the start of 2015.

Many blame major European powers for the unprecedented exodus, saying their policies have led to a surge in terrorism and war in those regions, forcing more people to flee their homes.

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