Panagiotopoulos: European funding secured for the Evros border fence

“The way is clearing for funding the fence we are building on the Evros with European money,” said the Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, in an interview with SKAI.

The Minister of Migration pointed out that “border management is now very strongly on the European agenda, especially from the next period, from January 1, when Poland will take over, which also has a special interest in intensifying the management of European borders as a country located on the European border”. As he added, “in the debate of the European Parliament’s Finance Committee, where the European budget is being discussed, for the first time the financing of infrastructure for the safer guarding of the European borders was foreseen. This means that the way is now open for the financing of the fence we are building in the Evros with European money, as we had foreseen. Of course, the text talks about strengthening infrastructure, but infrastructure includes the fence, so I think this is good news.”

Referring to the new shipwreck in Samos, Panagiotopoulos referred to the traffickers, saying that “these people bear the responsibility of cramming large numbers of people, including children, into boats to take them to the Greek islands. In these weather conditions the chances of an accident, a shipwreck with deaths, or drownings at sea are increased. That is why we have been saying from the very beginning that the focus must be on dealing with these criminal organizations, the traffickers.”

According to Panagiotopoulos, in Rhodes, the creation of “a temporary detention area, until they are forwarded to identification and reception centers, is “in the planning phase”. At the moment we have some locations in our hands and we are studying them. It must be done, otherwise, scenes will be repeated, where these people will roam uncontrolled in Rhodes, and a negative image will be created, as happened during the celebration of 28 October, when the island was full of people. He added, however, that “we are in consultation with the region, with the municipal authority, the local authorities.”

On the issue that has arisen with interpretation, the Immigration Minister admitted that “there is a problem with interpretation because the contract extension with the relevant NGO has not yet been signed, but tomorrow the invitation to the NGO will be sent by the ministry to sign this contract extension. Therefore, a solution to this difficult problem is being initiated.” He added “I must admit that there were financial pending issues, we have resolved or are resolving them, they are at the last stage. The NGO, which wants to find a solution, has already promoted a small number of volunteer interpreters in the field. There were already about 60 interpreters from the European Asylum Organisation to fill some gaps.”

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