“The current situation is far beyond the capabilities of the Asylum Service,” Maria Stavropoulou, head of the Service said in an interview to Athens-Macedonian News Agency. She referred to staff shortages that have led the Regional Asylum Office in Attica to close its doors to those who wish to submit an asylum request. As she said, the Office currently operates with 200 employees across Greece, while due to the increasing asylum applications, twice that staff should have been employed. Lack of staff has led to a 35% reduction in the number of people whose applications are processed at the Regional Office in Attica, a figure that translates to just 25 asylum applications per day. Stavropoulou expects that the problem will be limited after the transfer of municipal police officers as soon as bureaucratic procedures are completed, while she proposed offering, on a European level, temporary asylum to a large number of applicants. (source: ana-mpa)