Notis Mitarachi

Following a visit to the Aegean island of Samos in the wake of rioting and a spate of fires at the Vathy reception center for migrants, Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis on Tuesday described the situation there as "extremely difficult."

Notwithstanding Greece's relative success in curbing the spread of the coronavirus, migrant reception centers across the country remain a concern as potential hotbeds for outbreaks, particularly on the Aegean islands where facilities are overcrowded and social distancing rules are all but impossible to enforce.

The relocation of 2,380 asylum seekers from overcrowded reception centers on the Aegean islands to facilities on the mainland will be carried out "in strict observance of regulations for the protection of public health" amid the coronavirus pandemic, Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis told state television on Friday.

Workers at the Migration Ministry's Asylum Service on Thursday declared an indefinite walkout over the ministry's failure to renew the contracts of 17 employees.
The union said that although the ministry renewed 629 contracts through April 2021, these 17 employees had been "deliberately" left out.

Greece's health and migration ministers were meeting Wednesday to discuss protective measures to keep the novel coronavirus from spreading in the country's migrant camps.

The meeting between Vassilis Kikilas and Notis Mitarakis at the Health Ministry was being attended by the government's chief scientific adviser on the coronavirus, Sotiris Tsiodras, and other officials.

The head of the Greek chapter of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said the body has no information indicating that migrants have started gathering along the Turkish coastline opposite the islands of the eastern Aegean.

Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said on Monday that, although migrants have started gathering along the Turkish coastline opposite the islands of the eastern Aegean, there are no indications that they are infected with coronavirus, as some media reports had suggested over the weekend.

More than two dozen shelters hosting asylum seekers on the Greek mainland will come under the administrative control of the Migration and Asylum Ministry as part of the effort to improve the operation of these facilities, many of which are currently operating under the authority of international organizations or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

A total of 450 migrants who arrived in Lesvos after March 1 will be transferred by navy ship to closed camps on the mainland ahead of their deportation, Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said in a television interview on Saturday.

EU-backed repatriations program aim to ease pressure on islands Migration Policy Minister Notis Mitarakis and European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson on Thursday jointly announced the establishment of a European Union-backed program for the repatriation of 5,000 migrants from Greece to their home countries.