Figure 2a. Direct External Financial Contribution to Greece 2008-2013 Figure 2b. Indirect External Financial Contribution to Greece 2008-2013 The overall cost to manage the irregular migrant population within these funding schemes was estimated at a minimum of half a billion Euros, out of which around 15% was allocated to the asylum system, 30% in return policies and 55% in external border management. The emphasis is placed on ‘minimum’, since additional sums allocated from the national budget are not always known nor are easy to calculate. For instance, the Ministry of Marine and Mercantile announced recently that it spent in 2013 approximately EUR 62 million, in order to control the Greek Turkish sea border in the East Aegean Sea. In the case of the Greek Police, however, an analogous estimate would be more difficult, if not impossible, as tasks related to the management of irregular migration have in recent years been integrated into the regular duties of police officers. Likewise, private financial contributions, donations and voluntary work in particular by NGOs are not reflected in the above-described figures, as it would be difficult to estimate in monetary terms. For the purposes of this study, two conclusions are drawn thus far: first, that within the period 2008-2013, Greece's irregular migration control policy has cost Greece and the EU a minimum of half a billion euros. Second, Greece’s policy priorities in the area of border control and asylum have been heavily influenced (to put it lightly) by the related EU policy priorities and decisions, as this last was the biggest sponsor of irregular migration control and asylum measures. Page 25