Border guards

The European Commission has approved an additional funding of EUR 10 M to help Macedonia improve its border and migration management capabilities in the context of the refugee crisis.

Greece's defense minister has said he wants an agreement with neighboring Turkey that would allow the European Union's Frontex border agency to stop and turn back - within Turkish waters - boats carrying migrants to the Greek islands.

Following a positive opinion by the Schengen evaluation committee on Friday, the College of Commissioners has today adopted the Schengen Evaluation Report on Greece and a proposal for a Council Recommendation on addressing the serious deficiencies identified in the evaluation report on the application of Schengen rules in the field of management of the external borders by Greece.

The bodies of 24 migrants, including 10 children, were discovered off the Greek island of Samos Jan. 28 after their boat capsized, the Greek coastguard said.

Eleven people from a dinghy carrying 45 people were still listed as missing following the latest tragedy involving overladen migrant boats crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece.    

Another boat tragedy involving children was noted off the straits of the island of Samos. A boat carrying migrants attempting the perilous crossing capsized under unknown circumstances, resulting in 12 drownings. Among the dead were three little girls, five little boys, three men and a woman, however it is believed that the number of victims will rise as the investigation is continuing.

Greek authorities say a total of seven bodies, including those of two children, have been recovered from the sea off the eastern Aegean island of Kos after a boat carrying migrants or refugees sank early Jan. 27.

Rescue crews recovered the bodies of three men, two women, a boy and a girl. There were two survivors - a man and a woman.

Alternate Migration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas on Monday criticized pressures on Greece concerning the refugee crisis, adding that Greece’s exclusion from the Schengen Zone would not solve any problems. He instructed the European Commission to explore a procedure to extend temporary internal border checks within the Schengen area for up to two years.

Hundreds of people protested in north-east Greece on Jan. 24 against the security fence along the Turkish border, demanding the opening of safe routes for migrants, two days after 45 died making the risky Aegean Sea crossing.

Greece wants EU border agency Frontex to help send back to Turkey migrants deemed ineligible for asylum in Europe, Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias told reporters on Jan. 23.

The minister's comments came a day after he shared this proposal with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steimeier in Berlin, Greek news agency ANA and a ministry source said.    

Greek police, the European Commission and Frontex held a meeting on Friday at the Citizen Protection Ministry in Athens and discussed the readmission and repatriation of undocumented migrants.