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Greece Has to Accept Refugees From EU States Due to Dependence on Bloc - AfD

© REUTERS / Yannis BehrakisStranded Syrian refugees carry their children through a snow storm at a refugee camp north of Athens, Greece January 10, 2017.
Stranded Syrian refugees carry their children through a snow storm at a refugee camp north of Athens, Greece January 10, 2017. - Sputnik International
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Athens has to cooperate with Brussels on the issues related to asylum seekers, including on accepting refugees from other EU states, because of Greece's financial dependence on the European Union, Germany in particular, a spokesman for the Berlin branch of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party told Sputnik on Tuesday.

BELGRADE (Sputnik), Victoria Mladenovich — On Thursday, the German Interior Ministry said Berlin was likely to begin returning refugees to Greece starting from March 15, in line with the European Commission's December recommendations.

"These migrants should be brought back to Greece. They have to cooperate, since Greece is dependent upon financial aid from other EU countries, namely Germany," Ronald Glaser said.

He added that at the same time the transfer of migrants would barely take place, as the German government "is not willing to send illegal immigrants home — or [would send] only very few."

Syrian refugee Walaa, 26, sits inside her family's tent at the Souda municipality-run camp on the island of Chios, Greece, September 7, 2016. - Sputnik International
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The European Union is currently struggling to manage a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people leaving conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa to escape violence and poverty and seeking asylum in Europe.

On December 8, 2016, the European Commission recommended that the EU member states return to the practice of sending asylum seekers who entered the bloc through Greece back to the Balkan nation, which was suspended in 2011. The recommendations are based on the 1990 Dublin Regulation, signed by all EU members, which stipulates that the first EU member country entered by a refugee is responsible for processing their asylum application.

After the migrant crisis escalated in 2015, some EU countries called for the system to be amended as it leads to a disproportionate amount of migrants in peripheral EU member states that cannot handle the influx.

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