MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The European Union will invest 1.8 billion euros ($1.9 billion) into funding national programs related to migration and security, the European Commission said Wednesday.
"Migration is one of the ten priorities of this Commission. Making migration policy work in all its aspects is essential to the overall success of our societies," Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos was quoted as saying in the press release posted on the organization’s website.
About 1.8 billion euros will be channeled through Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF).
Resources will be allocated to 22 multiannual programs approved by the European Commission earlier on Wednesday. These programs aim to support efforts to improve the quality of asylum procedures, as well as strengthen EU countries’ capacity to manage security-related risks such as terrorism and drug trafficking, among other measures.
Additional 36 national programs are expected to be approved later in 2015.
AMIF and ISF both have a total budget of almost seven billion euros for the next five-year period.
Frontex estimates that over 276,000 people entered the EU illegally in 2014, which marked a 155-percent increase compared to 2013 figures. For the most part, the migrants arrived to the Spanish and Italian coasts from North Africa by sea.
