EU Rapid Reaction Border Forces to Include Up to 1,200 People

According to a source in the EU Parliament, European Commission has proposed to create a European corps of rapid reaction border forces consisting of about 1,200 experts.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – The European Commission has proposed to create a European corps of rapid reaction border forces consisting of about 1,200 experts, capable of being deployed to a migrant crisis hotspot within 2-3 days, a source in the EU Parliament said Friday.

"The European Commission has suggested creating a frontier corps of up to 1,200 people that could be deployed within 2-3 days' [notice]," the source told RIA Novosti.

According to the source, the rapid reaction border forces will be used in situations where a Shengen area member is unable to provide necessary border control to prevent the uncontrolled inflow of migrants.

On December 15, the European Commission will present proposals on establishing a corps of EU border guards and a coastguard service as well as recommendations on the resettlement of refugees currently in Turkey to the European Union.

The European Union is currently struggling to manage a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Over 1.2 million illegal border crossings have been detected by the EU border agency Frontex since the beginning of 2015.