Government takes control of migrant camps away from NGOs

Greece’s Migration Ministry announced on Wednesday that twenty-eight facilities hosting asylum applicants on the Greek mainland will become legal entities and come under the joint jurisdiction of the Minister of Migration and the Deputy Minister of Finance.

The Minister of Migration and Asylum, Notis Mitarachi said that now the asylum facilities come under the management and control of the government instead of that of NGOs.

Mitarachi noted that a joint ministerial decision is being signed to this effect, while the government will open applications for managers of these facilities and for staff, he noted.

The ministry’s aim “is to improve the operation of all facilities, many of which operate at present under the management of international organisations or NGOs,” Mitarachi said in his statement. The ministry, he said, “seeks the smooth operation of facilities to the benefit of residents and local communities.”