Rene Mahato, an Italian who was in charge of organizing the trip, said on Monday that several European countries also paid a large amount of money to help the rescue mission.
“It [the rescue mission] was financed by many European member states, even at the very high level, as to where it was funded was not made public,” Mahato said during the forum, according to a report by AFP news agency.
The total price tag for the operation was around €10.5 million, or $11.7 million at last Thursday’s exchange rate, with Austria and Denmark contributing the most, Reuters reported.
The rescues will probably not be repeated anytime soon, a member of the European Commission said on Tuesday, as the U.S. government has criticized Germany for not doing enough to help the refugees.
The U.S. has blamed Germany’s refusal to accept asylum seekers for an uptick in Islamic militant attacks across the region.
Germany’s federal government said Monday that asylum rules in the country are sufficient, but has said it will do everything it is able to do to help.
The head of Germany’s military in Bavaria, Michael Roth, said the U.S. and Western Europe should step up their efforts to help.
“We cannot afford to remain on the sidelines so long,” Roth told German television station ARD. He said it would be bad for Germany to turn against refugees if this happens.
The rescue flights to Greece from Turkey have so far brought only around 1,000 refugees to the Greek islands, where authorities say they are living rough due to the worsening security situation caused by the refugee crisis. While that is less than the number of people who entered Germany in 2015, police have so far arrested almost two dozen alleged smugglers and smugglers between Turkey, Greece and Germany.
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