Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi defended, on Thursday 4 November, his government’s actions at the external borders and assured that the coast guard was operating in accordance with fundamental rights.
He was speaking alongside the Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Spain’s Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D), after a parliamentary mission to the country.
A mission during which the MEPs had the opportunity to talk about the “right to asylum” and Article 19 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights rejecting “collective expulsions and pushbacks”, said the Spaniard.
The LIBE delegation thus had the opportunity to express “its concerns” as Greece is regularly the subject of revelations about the pushback of migrants at its borders.
The minister said he had requested further information from the group of journalists who published new images of pushbacks in mid-October (see EUROPE 12807/4). “They did not want to”, the minister commented, seeming to question the veracity of the investigation.
He also said he felt that Greece already had a good mechanism for monitoring the actions of the coastguard, while the Commission and Athens have committed to developing a new independent mechanism which is currently a condition for the release of new EU funds.
The two leaders also discussed the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ and said they hoped it would make a real difference in terms of solidarity. For LIBE’s chair, this solidarity towards the southern countries of the EU can only be achieved through “relocations” of people who have the right to stay in the EU, but also through “new legal channels” of migration such as resettlement.
The Greek minister also called for these legal channels, to ensure that it is not “the smugglers who decide who comes to the EU”. Furthermore, the EU can do more to strengthen the common protection of external borders and develop a real European return strategy, he said. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)