Coping with a fundamental rights emergency – The situation of people crossing the Greek border in an irregular manner
stressed, however, that any such support provided by the municipality should be of a temporary
nature and that migrants should not be kept in the Evros region for prolonged periods of time.
Apart from informal meetings in Orestiada between the mayor and the police director, the FRA
was informed that no meetings took place with the four mayors, covering the border region to
Turkey, to discuss the role of the municipalities and to identify concrete resources that could be
used to alleviate the suffering during the current crisis. In his discussion with FRA the newly
elected Head of the Regional Administration (Perifereiarchis) promised to hold such a meeting
very soon.
The current lack of coordination and cooperation between the various agencies and bodies is
unlikely to be overcome, unless a specialised actor entrusted with coordination and the
necessary authority is established. Within the Greek administration reporting lines are vertical
and there is little experience in horizontal coordination at an operational level. The following
case can serve as an illustration of the impact of such lack of coordination: KEELPNO identified a
place in a centre for psychosocial counselling for a HIV+ migrant who was hospitalised in Evros.
One day before the transfer was organised, the police handed out a deportation order to the
migrant. Fearing of being deported, the person fled from the hospital.
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