Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 8 May (HL7459), how many Liaison Officers they have in (1) Italy, and (2) Greece; and how many experts and interpreters the European Asylum Support Office and the European Commission have sent to the Greek islands.

The UK (Home Office) has deployed two Liaison Officers to Greece and one Liaison Officer to Italy. The UK also continues our long-running specialist deployments to the EU Commission and EASO to support their work in Greece (UK officers included in numbers stated in the below reports).

The number of experts and interpreters deployed to Greek islands by the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) is available in their annual report. The most recent annual report was published in September 2017 and covers 2016 and can be found here: https://www.easo.europa.eu/easo-annual-report. In 2016 there were 543 experts deployed in Greece. EASO also deployed interpreters/cultural mediators to conduct its operations. Published figures for 2017 are not available yet.

In terms of European Commission staff in Greece, this can be found in the European Commission’s Annual Activity Report on DG Migration and Home Affairs. The most recent report covers 2016 and can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/annual-activity-report-2016-migration-and-home-affairs_en