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EU May Provide Funds to Morocco, Tunisia to Stop Migrant Flow to Spain – Source

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - The European Commission is considering allocating additional funds to enhance border control in Morocco and Tunisia in a bid to stop the flow of migrants to Spain, a diplomatic source in Brussels told Sputnik.
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"As far as I know, the allocation of funds to Morocco and Tunisia is considered as one of the ways to enhance border control in order to prevent migrants [from coming to Spain]," a source said.

Earlier on July 31, the European Commission said that it had received Spain’s request for additional assistance and was considering it at the moment.

On July 2, the European Union already provided additional 45.6 million euros ($53.1 million) to Spain and Greece, hit by the migrant influx.

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The European Commission said that it allocated additional 37.5 million euros ($44 million) to Greece aimed at improvement of reception conditions for migrants arriving in the country.

"Today, the European Commission has awarded an additional 37.5 million euros in emergency assistance under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) to improve reception conditions for migrants in Greece," the press release of the commission reads.

The Greek authorities will receive the biggest part of the sum — 31.1 million euros — for provisional services to migrants, such as healthcare, food and accommodation.

"A further 6.4 million euros has been awarded to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to improve reception conditions and to provide site management support to selected sites on the mainland," the commission added.

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The commission added that it had given Greece over 1.6 billion euros since 2015 to deal with migration-related issues.

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The number of people who tried to reach Spain by boat and were rescued by the country's rescue agency alone has dramatically increased, surging from just over 1,000 migrants in April to almost 6,400 in June, according to the latest figures from the Spanish Maritime Safety and Rescue Agency (SASEMAR).

Since 2015, Europe has been experiencing its worst migration crisis in recent history, struggling to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people fleeing hostilities in the Middle Eastern and North African countries.

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