EU Extends EUR 9M to Austria, Hungary to Cope with Migrant Crisis

The European Commission said on Tuesday it has allocated EUR 4M in emergency assistance to Hungary to help the country cope with the increased migrant influx across its border with Serbia.

The funding, extended under the under the EU’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) will be used to improve the infrastructure of existing reception facilities as well as develop new ones, to buy additional equipment and supplies for reception centres, as well as to expand human resources and increase transport capacities in Hungary.

The allocation comes after Austria on Monday received EUR 5M extended under the AMIF to increase the reception capacity for 1,270 newly arrived asylum seekers, as well as to increase the administrative capacity to process an increased number of asylum claims, the EU Commission said on its website.

"The refugee crisis … is knocking on the door of one EU member state after the other,” the EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, commented in Vienna on Monday.

“We can only overcome this crisis if we act as a true Union; if we act with responsibility and solidarity."