Ioannis Mouzalas

Speaking to radio station “Vima FM”, journalist Pantelis Fikaris of the Chios-based newspaper “Politis Chios”, alleged that Alternate Minister for Immigration Policy, Ioannis Mouzalas and Alternate Minister of Public Order and Citizen Protection, Nikos Toskas had contacted him before the visit of US President Barack Obama asking to censor images of violence and riots from the Souda r

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reshuffled his cabinet late on Friday, removing ministers who have expressed opposition to the austerity measures and economic measures demanded by Greece’s international creditors, but retaining his ministers of finance and foreign affairs.

A protest broke out in the Moria migrant detention center on the Greek island of Lesvos Tuesday during a visit by the Greek migration affairs minister and a Dutch official.

The already tense relations between the two coalition partners in the Greek government, left SYRIZA and right populist ANEL are on shakier grounds than ever.

Greek Alternate Minister of Immigration Policy Ioannis Mouzalas told Austrian newspaper Wiener Zeitung that he felt deep sorrow and great anger for the EU as a whole on the refugee crisis. The minister said the refugee problem was not caused by Greece and therefore not a Greek issue, but a European one. ‘We cannot accept this politically.

Greek authorities say a total of seven bodies, including those of two children, have been recovered from the sea off the eastern Aegean island of Kos after a boat carrying migrants or refugees sank early Jan. 27.

Rescue crews recovered the bodies of three men, two women, a boy and a girl. There were two survivors - a man and a woman.

The European Commission and the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR have launched a scheme to provide 20,000 additional reception places for asylum seekers and relocation candidates in Greece, the Commission said on Monday.

The scheme will be funded through rent subsidies in the private sector and host family programmes with the Commission providing EUR 80 M from the 2016 EU budget.

The European Commission and the UNHCR today launched a scheme to provide 20.000 additional reception places for asylum seekers and relocation candidates in Greece through subsidies for housing in the private sector.

Alternate Migration Policy Minister Ioannis Mouzalas rejected criticism the government has not done enough to pressure Turkey to implement the Readmission Agreement. He said that consecutive governments have had difficulty convincing the neighboring country to take action.

Greek Alt. Migration Affairs Minister Ioannis Mouzalas admitted that migrants are being taken to the Tae Kwon Do stadium at Paleo Faliro, an upmarket southern suburb of Athens. He stated that the migrants relocation is step by step however admitted that the next steps had yet to be decided upon. “I don’t know where migrants will go after here,” he said. “You’ll know then.”