EU ready to help fund Greek asylum reform: Commissioner

(ATHENS) - The European Commission will provide Greece with financial help to reform its dysfunctional asylum system, EU home affairs chief Cecilia Malmstroem pledged Monday.

"We are committed to help and assist Greece with money, but also infrastructure and know-how to build a modern system," Malmstroem said following a meeting with Greek Citizen Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis.

"We are speaking of a quite big sum from different programmes," she said, but warned Greece must improve its administrative ability to manage the funds and carry out the reform.

"We hope that the reform process will start as soon as possible," Malmstroem added.

Despite the serious economic crisis gripping the country, Greece's government has agreed under pressure from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to conduct a thorough reform of its asylum system.

The UN refugee agency warned last week that Greece faces a "humanitarian crisis" with thousands of asylum seekers living in the rough given the "continued absence of a functioning asylum system" in the country.

The UNHCR called on the EU to help Greece carry out the reforms as the southeast European state faces a heavy burden because it is one of the main points of entry into the bloc for would-be migrants.

Greece has just 865 reception places for asylum seekers, while it received 16,000 new asylum applications last year, according to the UNHCR.