Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 26 February (HL5626), how many (1) British personnel, and (2) non-British persons employed by HM Government and British agencies, including interpreters, are now working in Greece for the purposes set out in that Answer; and how many of those personnel are regularly present in the Aegean islands.

Further to the response to written question HL5626, between May 2016 and March 2017 the Home Office provided 115 experts to the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) in Greece, primarily to support implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement. The exact number of UK staff deployed at any given time varies but since March 2017 we have continued to provide expert support to Greece in line with the particular needs identified by EASO. Our experts work on the Greek islands to interview arriving migrants, act as interpreters, advise on information provision and flow management and support coordination through the EU Commission team in Athens.

The majority of the interpreters are deployed via EASO on a needs basis but following a recent urgent bilateral request from the Greek government, the Home Office has also provided additional interpreters to help process migrant arrivals on the island hotspots.

We also have a Border Force cutter, HMC Valiant, based in the Aegean and provide debriefers, screeners and interpreters to support the Hellenic Coastguard and Frontex Operation Poseidon and tackle Organised Immigration Crime.