(ANSA) - TRIESTE - European Union countries have begun the process of sending migrants who arrived over the last five months via Greece back there to have their asylum applications assessed, Ap reported. This practice was suspended as Greece struggled to cope with a massive refugee influx.

EU rules oblige migrants to apply for asylum in the country they first entered. But the requirement was put on hold as hundreds of thousands of people, many of them Syrian refugees, reached Greece on boats from Turkey in 2015. European Commission recommended in December that member countries gradually resume sending unauthorized migrants who arrived after March 15 back to Greece. Greece's asylum service said it has received requests to accept more than 400 returned migrants, but none have been transferred since mid-March. Germany has asked Athens to take back 392 asylum-seekers. Austria, Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and non-EU countries Norway and Switzerland have also asked to transfer smaller numbers. Greece's migration minister Ioannis Mouzalas said the returns would involve "few dozen people in coming months". (ANSA).