Home Department: Asylum: EU Countries (29th June 2011)
Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will offer support to the governments of countries of southern Europe to improve their administrative capacity to deal with asylum cases; and if she will make a statement.
Damian Green (Minister of State (Immigration), Home Office; Ashford, Conservative)
The Government are committed to offering the kind of support to which my hon. Friend refers.
In the last six months, we have sent a number of asylum experts to Greece as members of EU teams coordinated by the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). Three further UK experts are due to be deployed to Greece in the next few months under the auspices of EASO to support the delivery of improvements to the asylum system there. Separately, the UK has given £238,500 to UNHCR for projects related to asylum reform in Greece.
We have also recently assisted Malta with language analysis to help their authorities determine asylum seekers' countries of origin more effectively, and have made clear both to Malta and Italy our willingness to provide further practical support should it be necessary.