[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Ylva Johansson, the EU’s home affairs commissioner, pledged 276 million euros ($326m) of EU money for new camps on the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros, where nearly 14,000 migrants are hosted, saying it was imperative to find “new political solutions” to share the burden between EU states.
In 2015 Greece, Lesbos in particular, was at the front line of a refugee crisis that saw nearly a million people, mostly Syrians, fleeing war, arriving by boat from Turkey.
Numbers have decreased dramatically since the EU struck a deal with Ankara a year later, with some 16,000 people arriving in Greece last year, according to UN data.
The country has toughened its migration policy since conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis came to power in 2019.
Border patrols have increased, asylum processes have been quickened and benefits have been slashed, even for refugees who are granted asylum.
Mitarachi said about 14,000 migrants were currently in camps on five islands, down from about 42,000 in 2019. About 58,000 were in camps across Greece, down from 92,000 in 2019.
The EU home affairs commissioner said Turkey should stick to a 2016 deal that would see Ankara take back failed asylum seekers from Greek islands. EU officials are set to travel to Turkey for talks next week. 
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