Acknowledging that the Greek economy is too weak to handle the massive influx of arriving refugees, Germany has offered financial assistance to cash-strapped Greece to assist with the country’s efforts in handling thousands of daily refugee arrivals.
The money is intended dot help Greece strengthen its borders and keep more refugees from fleeing Turkey.
“We want to support Greece in this, so that it is able to meet its duties as a member of the EU to protect its borders in the most effective way,” the government spokesman Steffen Seibert told journalists in Berlin.
But an article in the respected economic magazine Wirtschaftswoche quoted a government insider as saying there were different motives to the support.
“Our highest priority right now is that more refugees stay in Greece,” a government insider was quoted as saying.
The Germans hope that the prospect of economic aid might convince Athens to hold greater numbers of refugees instead of bussing them north towards the Balkans— and ultimately to Germany.