Greece has made remarkable steps towards contemporary management of the migration issue, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said in Athens on Monday during an event on migration at the relevant Greek ministry.
Johansson had met Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the ministry earlier in the day. In a social media post, she said of the meeting: “Today in Athens I met Prime Minister Mitsotakis. We discussed the positive progress made by Greece in the orderly management of migration, the need for more legal and integration pathways, as well as the crisis in the Middle East.”
The Prime Minister, the Minister of Migration and Asylum, Dimitris Kairidis, and the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, also spoke at the event on “European solutions to the common challenge of migration” at the Ministry of Migration.
The Commissioner referred to the new pact on migration and asylum which the 27 EU member states have agreed on and which will be ratified in the spring. He described the Pact as a comprehensive and balanced agreement worth 2 billion euros from which Greece stands to benefit significantly. He also revealed that an additional 1.6 billion euros would be allocated to member states for migration programs.
During a discussion with Kairidis as part of the event at the Ministry of Migration, Johansson highlighted that significant progress has been made in Greece in terms of managing the migration issue, and stressed that this shows that if countries work together, they can achieve a lot. despite many challenges.
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The Home Affairs Commissioner also said that 3.5 million migrants arrive in the European Union legally each year, while another 300,000 arrive irregularly. More must be done to make the system work better, she said, while calling for a global alliance against human traffickers, who must be stopped.
Migration and Asylum Minister Kairidis stressed that 90% of irregular arrivals in Greece were the work of human traffickers. Their networks must be fought with the networks of collaborating countries. As he explained: “We have to collaborate. The 27 States took a long time (to act). There are many naive people facing this enormous problem and the massive profit of billions generated by illegal migrant trafficking. Let’s save the asylum system from its attackers – which requires (the return of migrants). This does not mean that anyone who comes to Europe will stay there. If they are entitled to asylum, yes; otherwise, they must return.
The minister said Greece was behind on the issue of legal immigration, as renewing a residence permit could take up to two years. This is a priority issue for the near future, he added. “The migration issue is an area that can unite us instead of dividing us,” he concluded.
In subsequent statements, Johansson said discussions were ongoing on challenges such as irregular arrivals and how to prevent them through close collaboration, as well as on migrant returns. Discussions also focus on ways to invest in legal migration routes and “labor” migration, “because we need it”.
European societies and labor markets are facing staff shortages and legal and orderly migration was necessary. Europe can prove that the migration problem is manageable, she stressed, adding that Greece is at the forefront of contemporary management of the migration problem.
SOURCE; ANA-MPA