24 FRONTIER EUROPE Human rights abuses on Greece’s border with Turkey 6. CONCLUSION: SHARED EU RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS EXTERNAL BORDERS “Already, new pre-departure detention centres, initial reception centres, a new asylum service and an appeals authority have been established. We are managing all those who come to Greece in the best way ... We are trying to convince them in a humane way ... to pass the message for them not to come to Greece because Greece is going through a crisis and that we are not going to allow them to go to other European countries – which is what most of them wish”. Major General E. Katriadakis, Ministry of Public Order and Citizens' Protection, 5 June 2013 70 Along with other countries on the EU’s southern frontier, Greece has been confronted with a large flow of migrants and refugees most of whom wish to go further west to other EU countries rather than stay in Greece. This responsibility is particularly difficult for Greece as an EU Member State greatly impacted by economic crisis. The European Commission has been supporting Greece in the area of migration and asylum through funding as well as through technical assistance provided by Frontex and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). However, the emphasis of the support extended to Greece in this area has been on securing Europe’s external borders by enhancing border control measures and increasing detention capacity. 71 While the Commission allocated almost €227,576,503 million for Greece under the Return Fund and the External Borders Fund for the period from 2011 to the end of 2013;72 only €19,950,000 was allocated to Greece under the European Refugee Fund for the same period.73 As evidenced by Amnesty International’s research presented above, the emphasis on border control and detention is costing lives and leading to human rights abuses on the Greece-Turkey border. Amnesty International July 2013 Index: 25/008/2013