Greece does not change its migration policy, Kairides says

Kairides underlined that a lot needs to be done on legal migration. "Upgrading, modernizing, speeding up the administrative mechanism of legal migration."

“The government’s migration strategy is based on two pillars: against anything illegal, in favour of everything reasonably legal. The country is not changing its migration policy. The country has a strict anti-trafficking policy and is in favour of reasonably legal migration routes,” Minister of Migration and Asylum Dimitris Kairides said on Saturday in parliement.

Kairides underlined that a lot needs to be done on legal migration. “Upgrading, modernizing, speeding up the administrative mechanism of legal migration.”

Referring to the amendment submitted granting a three-year stay and work permit to undocumented migrants, he cleared out that this does not mean legalization, it does not give any rights, beyond access to the labour market, nor family reunification, nor permanent residence, nor even more likely citizenship, as the Germans do. Moreover, it does not concern new arrivals, it does not concern people who came in 2022 or 2023. It only concerns people who came before 2021, who have been here for three years, and who, above all, have a work contract and a clean criminal record.”