Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they are providing to speed up the assessment for refugees and migrants arriving in Greece.

The Government continues to work closely with all European partners, including Greece, to address migration issues. The EU-Turkey deal, along with border closures in the Western Balkans, has contributed to a significant reduction in the flow of illegal migrants and loss of life in the Aegean. The UK has played a leading role in supporting Greece and Turkey to implement the EU-Turkey Statement.

As part of this we continue our long-running specialist deployments to the EU Commission team in Athens, and are providing further expert support to the European Asylum Support Office in line with the particular needs identified. Our experts interview arriving migrants, act as interpreters, advise on information provision and flow management and support coordination through the EU Commission team in Athens.

The presence of UK staff in Greece has supported improvements in procedures and processing of migrants, improved safety and security conditions for migrants in the border hotspots, enabled the identification of and provision of appropriate support to vulnerable migrants, and further protected vulnerable migrants from smuggling, trafficking and exploitation.

In addition, we have a Border Force cutter, HMC VALIANT, based in the Aegean and the provision of debriefers, screeners and interpreters to support the Hellenic Coastguard and Frontex Operation Poseidon and tackle Organised Immigration Crime (OIC).

Following an urgent request from the Greek government, the UK has also committed to providing additional interpreters to help process the migrant arrivals on the island hotspots.