Forced migration

More than two-thirds (65 percent) of respondents in a survey conducted on the islands of the northern Aegean by Kappa Research on February 11-13 consider migrants and refugees a threat to the country.

Moreover, 90 percent said that increased migrant flows have adversely impacted the islands, while another 56 percent said no compensatory measures could improve the situation. 

The Finnish government says it has agreed to take in up to 175 asylum-seekers from camps in Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta "to alleviate the humanitarian situation" experienced by refugees in the Mediterranean members of the European Union.

Whether one agrees or not with the views of historian Antonis Liakos - who said that Greece due its demographic problem needs to take in one million refugees - the government must take specific decisions regarding how refugees and migrants will be integrated into Greek society.

Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias on Thursday announced a legislative initiative to facilitate the immediate hiring of medical staff at the hospitals on the eastern Aegean islands that bear the brunt of migration influx.
Speaking on Alpha TV, Kikilias said that the hospitals needed to be supported because they were originally designed to serve the needs of the local population.

The Greek government is determined to proceed with a decision to construct closed type hosting facilities for refugees and migrants, Alternate Migration Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos said in an interview with Praktoreio FM on Wednesday adding that plan will be to the benefit of local residents.

Cypriot Interior Minister Nicos Nouris says the government is determined to cut down on asylum and residence permit applications by blocking economic migrants from filing non-legitimate petitions.

The interior minister said in an interview with Kathimerini published on Sunday that a number of colleges in the Republic of Cyprus are a "breeding ground" for asylum applicants.

The government has responded to intensifying demands to ease the pressure on the five eastern Aegean islands that are on the front line of the migration/refugee crisis by creating new detention facilities. It has responded to the demand for the immediate transfer of tens of thousands of asylum seekers to facilities on the mainland by planning to put them behind walls on the islands.

Let us not fool ourselves. Greece will for a long time continue to shoulder by far the greatest share of the burden of the refugee crisis on its own.

Greece has announced that it will begin building closed camps for migrants on its Aegean islands in March and plans to send 200 asylum seekers back to Turkey each week.

Between September 2019 and January 2020, the government transferred 14,750 people to the mainland, even as 36,000 new arrivals crossed the Aegean to Greece from Turkey, according to UNHCR data.