ATHENS: European Union border teams have arrived in north-eastern Greece to help authorities stem an influx of migrants across its border with Turkey.

It is the first time that a rapid-intervention border team has been deployed to an EU member state since the Frontex teams were created in 2007.

Frontex agreed to send the team of 175 officials last month after Greece asked the EU agency for help because of the increasing number of refugees – mainly from Africa and Afghanistan – attempting to cross the border to find their way into the EU.

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Personnel and equipment from Germany, Romania, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Denmark will be deployed along the border. The mission is expected to last for two months and efforts will focus on policing a previously unguarded 12-kilometre river border between the towns of Nea Vyssa and Orestiada.

The Greek daily Kathimerini said more than 30,000 migrants had entered the EU across the narrow stretch of river. Frontex recorded a sixfold increase there in the number of immigrants trying to enter Greece in the second quarter of this year.

More people are trying to cross via Turkey because a previously used route from Libya to Italy was closed last year by a controversial bilateral agreement which allows Italian vessels to turn back migrants’ boats caught at sea.

According to United Nations officials, 300 to 400 migrants enter Greece each day, which has lead to a crisis in the country’s migrant detention system.

Last week the United Nations called on EU states to stop all transfers of asylum seekers back to Greece under the Dublin II agreement due to the poor conditions they face in the country.

The Dublin agreement allows states to send asylum seekers back to the country where they first entered the EU to have their application processed.

Last month Greece, which has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration, had a backlog of more than 52,000 asylum claims waiting to be processed.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

As the world watches Greece wrestle with its crushing debt and crippled economy, the country is quietly struggling to manage another burgeoning crisis: the dramatic influx of illegal immigrants crossing from Greece into the European Union. Officials say Greece receives about 85% of Europe’s total illegal immigrants, many of them coming through Turkey. Now it doesn’t know what to do with them — or how to stem the flow.

So at Greece’s request, the E.U. took the unprecedented step on Tuesday of agreeing to deploy border guards to help the country police its land border. “We could not handle this situation alone anymore,” says Christos Papoutsis, Greece’s Minister of Citizen Protection. “We don’t have the centers to house the people, we don’t have the staff to help them.”

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Greece and Frontex, the Warsaw-based agency that coordinates the patrolling of the E.U.’s external borders, are still working out the details of the deployment, including the number of guards — who will be armed — as well as when they will arrive. But both Papoutsis and a spokeswoman for the E.U. Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm, say the guards — who are part of the so-called rapid-intervention force — will operate under Greek command — and that the deployment will happen “as soon as possible.”

This will be the first time the rapid-intervention force has been deployed since it was created in 2007. And in another sign that the E.U. is taking the migration influx into Greece more seriously than ever before, earlier this month Frontex opened a regional center in the port city of Piraeus, the agency’s first office outside of its Warsaw headquarters.

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Though the number of illegal migrants entering Europe has decreased overall, the number of illegal crossings along Greece’s land border has gone up, according to Frontex. Greece was the point of entry for about 90% of illegal border crossings into the E.U. in the second quarter of this year, compared to 65% in the first quarter. The E.U. Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmstroem, said in a statement on Oct. 24 that the number of illegal immigrants at the Greek land border with Turkey has “reached alarming proportions,” adding that “Greece is manifestly not able to face the situation alone.”

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Malmstroem pointed out that one hotspot for illegal crossings is an eight-mile stretch near the northeastern Greek town of Orestiada. “Every day, we have more than 300 people trying to enter illegally along this area,” says Greek minister Papoutsis. “In relation to the size and population of Greece, that is essentially like adding an entire new village to the country every day.”

One reason so many migrants are now trying to cross through Greece is the increased sea patrols off the coasts of Spain and Italy, countries through which many North African migrants had slipped into the E.U. in the past. Libya has also stepped up its sea patrols, cutting off another well-traveled route into Europe through Sicily and southern Italy.

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Many of those who have made their way into Greece identify themselves as Afghans and often ask for asylum, though few have identification. Frontex has noted a six-fold increase in the number of Afghans who sought to cross into Greece illegally in the second quarter of 2010.

Because few illegal immigrants have papers, it’s hard to repatriate them. For those asking for asylum, the process could keep them waiting in limbo in Greece for years. This summer, the country had a backlog of some 52,000 asylum claims waiting to be processed, according to the United Nations. Greece itself is partly at fault for the backlog, since asylum requests are funneled through one central, understaffed office. Papoutsis says the government is now drafting a law that would help make the evaluation of asylum requests more efficient, including adding offices to speed up the process.

But in its quest to get a handle on the flood of illegal immigrants, Greece also has an E.U. rule called the Dublin Regulation adding to its troubles. Under the law, countries can send asylum seekers back to the country through which they first entered the E.U. — and these days, in most cases, that’s Greece. Stavros Lambrinidis, a Greek member of the European parliament who works on asylum and border issues, and other E.U. leaders are calling for changes to the regulation that would, among other things, stop the practice of sending asylum seekers back to already overwhelmed countries such as Greece.

“Greece is the main entry point now, so everyone stays here,” he says. “But the rest of Europe must help and take people in, because the pressure on Greece is enormous right now. It’s in the best interest of everyone, especially the asylum-seekers.”

Lambrindis and Papoutsis also hope neighboring Turkey will help the Greeks break up the human-trafficking rings that smuggle people into Europe. But in the meantime, Greeks are focusing on the immediate problem — stopping illegal migration across their land border — before increasingly fragile relations between migrants and citizens deteriorate further. “Greeks are already worried about jobs, the decreasing quality of their lives in this bad economy,” says Papoutsis. “They are afraid. And I don’t want the xenophobes in this country to exploit that.”

via Why is the E.U. Sending Armed Guards to Greece? – TIME.

By STEPHEN FIDLER

The European Union agreed Tuesday to send a rapid-response border force to help Greece patrol its land frontier with Turkey, as local Greek law enforcement has been overwhelmed by an influx of thousands of illegal immigrants entering the 27-nation bloc.

Immigrants at the train station in Nea Vissa, north of Orestiada, Greece, a main crossing point from Turkey.

Ilkka Laitinen, head of Frontex, the Warsaw-based agency coordinating management of the EU’s external borders, signed a decision Tuesday to send in the rapid-intervention force for its first deployment since it was created in 2007. The force can call on 500 to 600 border agents from EU member states, who will wear their national uniforms and can be armed.

Greece requested help Sunday, after its own border forces couldn’t cope with the influx.

A spokeswoman for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said Frontex was carrying out an assessment to establish what size the force should be and what assets, such as dogs and vehicles, would be needed. It isn’t clear when the force will arrive.

Immigration into the EU is on a downward trend because of the sluggish European economy—but more immigrants than ever are choosing to enter the bloc by land rather than sea. Once inside the EU, people can move across most national borders—with a few exceptions, such as the U.K.—without having to go through immigration controls.

The focus on the Greek land border comes as authorities clamp down on sea crossings in the Mediterranean. In the second quarter, 90% of the people trying to enter the EU illegally through Greece were detected at the land border, compared with 65% in the first quarter.

Frontex noted an eightfold rise in the second quarter from the first in the number of North Africans trying to get into the EU overland from Turkey. People from North African countries used to get to the EU largely through Spain and Italy. Large numbers of Afghan nationals and some Somalis are also using the Greek entry point.

Libya has increased its surveillance of migrants, although in June Tripoli ejected the United Nations refugee agency that was monitoring 13,000 refugees and asylum seekers in its territory who had attempted to enter Europe but were stopped, many on the high seas. Stepped-up Libyan and Italian sea patrols are limiting crossings using a traditional route into the EU via Sicily and southern Italy. Spain also signed agreements with Senegal and Mauritania resulting in increased monitoring by those governments, which has limited immigration from these countries.

Many clandestine entrants don’t have papers and claim to be from another country—many North Africans, for instance, claim to be Afghan—, making it difficult to repatriate them.

Manfred Nowak, a senior United Nations official, said last week that immigrants had overcrowded Greek prisons and overwhelmed law enforcement. He said some immigrants were being detained in degrading conditions, and cited numerous allegations of beatings by police officers.

After a 10-day visit, Mr. Nowak said Greek border stations, police stations and migrant detention centers were in “a critical state” and that there was a backlog of 52,000 cases of people seeking asylum in Greece. The Greek government shouldn’t have to bear the burden on its own, he said. “This is a truly European problem which needs a joint European solution.”

In the second quarter of this year, Greek patrols detected 9,500 attempted illegal border crossings into Greece from Turkey, out of a total 26,500 detections at border-crossing points all over the EU, according to data from Frontex. A similar number were caught crossing into Greece from Albania, probably to do temporary farm work before returning home. Most people are trying to cross within a few miles of the town of Orestiada, on the border with Turkey.

“Given that in July 2010, 150 to 200 illegal migrants were detected each day at Orestiada and that very few are currently to be returned [sent back] to Turkey, it is likely that the Greek authorities will continue to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of arrivals,” Frontex said in a report published last month. It predicted numbers would increase further if action wasn’t taken.

Write to Stephen Fidler at stephen.fidler@wsj.com