Migration & Asylum Min. Voridis: ‘Whoever stays in Greece illegally must leave, or be detained’

The return of anyone “who has no right to be in Greece is a foundation of migration policy, and Greece is not a country of uncontrollable entry and stay,” Migration & Asylum Minister Makis Voridis said on Tuesday.

Speaking to ‘Parapolitika’ station (FM 90.1) and journalists Thanassis Fouskidis and Stella Gadona on the ‘Ekini ki Ego’ show, Voridis said that remaining in Greece is neither self-evident nor uncontrollable. “In one month, we arranged nearly 170 returns, several of them voluntary. Beyond numerical performances, we moved swiftly to close a legal loophole that had come up with a Council of State decision. Within 15 days, we reintroduced the legal documentation of Turkiye as a safe country,” he said.

The migration minister also underlined that the market’s needs cannot be met through illegality, but through an institutional process of legal invitation, while he also warned that if the state gave in to automated legalization, human trafficking rings would use migrants as political tools.

Asked to comment about the new joint ministerial decision (KYA) that designated Turkiye as a safe third country, Voridis said, “The Council of State had annulled a former KYA that designated Turkiye as a safe country, due to insufficient justification. After speaking with the Foreign Minister, Mr. Gerapetritis, we then moved ahead to issue a new, fully justified decision. Turkiye is returning to the list of safe countries. If this designation did not exist, we would not be able to reject en masse the applications for asylum of anyone coming from Turkiye – we ought to review them individually, which delays the process and burdens the system.”

Responding further about returning migrants whose asylum requests were rejected (back to the country they came to Greece from), Voridis said, “If somebody does not get granted asylum or a residence permit and refuses to leave, then he or she must be restricted administratively, even criminally. Whoever is in the country illegally, must leave. Otherwise there will be a deprivation of freedom. The message is clear: residency in Greece is neither self-evident nor uncontrollable. And to those who say they do not want to leave, the reply is simple: when somebody stays illegally and knows their movements will be restricted or that they may even be detained, then they start thinking seriously of returning voluntarily.”

Source: pagenews.gr