Greece is achieving significant progress in dealing with illegal immigrants and asylum seekers even though more improvement is expected, according to the Malta-based European Asylum Support Office.

Following a fact-finding mission by a delegation from EASO to Greece, the agency’s Executive Director Robert Visser said work was moving in the right direction and significant progress had been made by the Greek authorities.

The country had to turn to the EU for assistance

In comparison to 2010, last year Greece almost doubled the number of examined asylum cases and also registered a significant increase in the number of examined asylum appeal cases. In addition, in 2011 the backlog of cases awaiting a decision fell by nearly 30 per cent.

However, at the end of the mission, which included on-site visits to asylum reception facilities and meetings with top Greek government officials, Dr Visser expressed concern over the lack of staff within the asylum and reception services.

Last year, following sudden influxes of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, particularly from the Turkish border, Greece had to turn to the EU to obtain assistance to deal with the problem.

Despite being just at the beginning of its activities, the Malta-based EU agency played an important part in the assistance given by assigning Asylum Support Teams from the 27 member states and devising a work programme to be followed by the Greek authorities.

Frontex, the EU’s border control agency based in Warsaw, and the European Commission are also assisting the Greek authorities.