NATO Chief Praises Greek Efforts in Solving Refugee Crisis

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has thanked Greece on Friday for its role in solving the current EU refugee crisis and the contribution to NATO efforts in this issue.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Friday, Stoltenberg held meetings with Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Defense Minister Panos Kammenos in Athens to discuss current security challenges and NATO’s response to them. 

#NATO SG commends #Greece on its role in migrant & #RefugeeCrisis https://t.co/UX1kZS8KMe pic.twitter.com/MTj7TxsCaz

— NATO (@NATO) 22 April 2016

​"There has been a significant reduction in the number of people crossing the Aegean from Turkey to Greece. We are helping counter criminal networks, secure our borders, and save lives. And NATO is working with the EU closer than ever before. We need to stay engaged. I thank Greece for contributing ships to our deployment. And for the excellent cooperation and coordination," Stoltenberg said at the meeting with Tsipras. 

According to Stoltenberg, NATO has deployed its forces to the Aegean Sea in order to curb illegal migration after Greece, Germany and Turkey requested Alliance's assistance to help cut the lines of human trafficking. 

[VIDEO] How is #NATO assisting in the migration and #RefugeeCrisishttps://t.co/JWss7skRnK

— NATO (@NATO) 21 April 2016

"NATO ships are providing real-time information to the coastguards of Greece and Turkey, as well as to the EU’s border agency Frontex," the secretary general added. 

Europe has faced an enormous influx of migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. Many of them take the West Balkan route, which crosses Greece, using the county as an entry point into the bloc from which they travel onward to wealthy EU states where they intend to apply for asylum.

In a March deal between Brussels and Ankara, Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants who arrive in the European Union through its territory in exchange for asylum seekers from Syria, on a one-for-one basis. The number of illegal border crossings has since significantly decreased.