ZAGREB, December 20, 2018 – The European Commission on Thursday decided to make available an additional 305 million euro in emergency assistance to support migration and border management in Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Croatia, and Croatia will receive 6.8 million euro of the amount.
“The Commission is awarding 6.8 million euro to Croatia to help reinforce border management at the EU’s external borders, in full respect of EU rules,” the Commission stated in a press release.
“The funding will help strengthen border surveillance and law enforcement capacity by covering the operational costs of 10 border police stations through the provision of the daily allowances, over-time compensation and equipment. A monitoring mechanism will be put in place to ensure that all measures applied at the EU external borders are proportionate and are in full compliance with fundamental rights and EU asylum laws.
“Today’s award brings the overall emergency funding for migration and border management allocated to Croatia by the Commission to almost 23.2 million euro. This comes on top of nearly 108 million euro allocated to Croatia under the national programmes of the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund and the Internal Security Fund 2014-2020,” reads the press release.
The total funding will support efforts to increase reception capacity, protect victims of human trafficking and strengthen border surveillance and management capacity, and Greece is given 289 million euro for the following purposes: rental accommodation and allowances (190 million euro), reception conditions (61 million euro), search and rescue (33 million euro) plus 357,000 euro to provide blankets, winter jackets and winterisation kits.
The Commission is awarding 5.3 million euro in emergency funding to the Italian authorities to help protect victims of human trafficking in the context of migration.
The European Commission is awarding 3.1 million euro to Cyprus to step up its reception capacity and transform the temporary emergency centre “Pournaras” into a fully-fledged first reception centre.
More news on Croatia’s migrant policies can be found in our Politics section.
