Greece’s Alternate Migration and Asylum Minister, Giorgos Koumoutsakos said that the government wants to create an additional 2,000 long term hosting positions for unaccompanied minors.
The minister made the comments in a published interview in Sunday’s edition of 'TO VEMA', adding that both Greece's partners and the majority of the citizens praise the support of the government’s decisive stance. The government's priority is the "protection of the borders, the decongestion of the islands, the returns and the unaccompanied children" and clarified that "the construction of structures for migrants on islets is not part of the government's plans."
Koumoutsakos clarified that Greece is not facing a spontaneous migration movement but a “well-organised and blackmailing use of desperate people for geopolitical purposes."
In the interview, he also underlined that the voluntarily return programme with the incentive of 2,000 euros which is financed by European funds, "will be strictly implemented for only one time and will be able to cover up to 5,000 migrants of those that are on the Greek island before January 1, 2020."
Referring to EU-Turkey agreement, he said it must be rescued and improved but this can happen only if Turkey, through specific actions, defuses the condition it created in Evros.
