Greece’s Minister of Migration and Asylum, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, made it clear that Greece will not accept returns of large numbers of migrants from Western Europe who originally entered the European Union via his country. The minister made this statement during an interview with the Athens News Agency-Macedonian Press Agency (ANA-MPA) on Saturday.
“This has not been proposed, nor would we accept mass returns of migrants from Western Europe,” Panagiotopoulos clarified.
The so-called Dublin Regulation requires member states that register an asylum seeker to eventually take that migrant back if they move to another EU country. Hard-hit countries like Italy and Greece, which often serve as the point of entry for asylum seekers, have long argued the regulation is unfair and routinely work to reject migrants being sent back to their nations.
The Greek minister, who is known for his tough stance on illegal migration, instead suggested that stricter asylum laws as well as enhancing the EU’s border security would be a much more effective solution to the problem of illegal mass migration. He also recommended that EU member states increase their efforts to return asylum-seekers whose applications have been rejected without the possibility of appeal to their countries of origin.
Panagiotopoulos also described a new detention facility that is being set up in Greece where entering migrants could be held before being transferred to reception centers. He explained that it would be operated by the Greek police, and would only be concerned with security and better organization of incoming migrants rather than with processing asylum applications. He added that this facility would not fall under his ministry’s purview.
Panagiotopoulos further said that he is concerned that a new migration route is developing between the North African coast and the Greek island of Crete, which could increase migration pressure on his already beleaguered coastal nation that has been on the front lines of the migrant crisis from the outset.
In 2023, Greece stated that it had stopped 260,000 illegal migrants from entering Europe in 2022 alone. In addition, approximately 1,500 people smugglers were also arrested by Greek authorities in 2022.
Polish media reveals Polish woman murdered on Greek island of Kos was gang raped by migrant suspects. https://t.co/FDJryJqded
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) June 20, 2023
