The EU border protection agency Frontex said Monday it will launch a border operation to help Greece cope with thousands of migrants trying to enter the bloc from Turkey. The Warsaw-based agency, which on Sunday said it was on "high alert" and deploying support units to Greece, said it will ask members of the European Union (EU) and Schengen Area to contribute officers and equipment.
"Given the quickly developing situation at the Greek external borders with Turkey, my decision is to accept to launch the rapid border intervention requested by Greece," Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri said in a statement.
His agency and Greece are finalising details of the plan, the statement said. The intervention is to call on pools of 1,500 officers and other staff which EU and Schengen countries are to provide within five days, according to the statement.
They must also make equipment available within 10 days. The Schengen Area comprises 26 European countries that have abolished controls at their mutual borders, four of which are not EU members. Migrants currently have unimpeded passage across Turkey to the borders of EU members Greece and Bulgaria, raising major concerns across the 27-member bloc.
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