By Mohammed Kuli
The conservative Greek government announced on Wednesday that it had developed, together with Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria, a plan to create return centers in Africa for migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected in the European Union, EFE agency reports.
Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum, Thanos Plevris, said he had already met with his counterparts from these countries and that technical teams would meet next week to discuss this plan.
The idea is to transfer to these centers migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected in the European Union, but who cannot be sent back to their countries of origin because they refuse to collaborate in the repatriation of their own illegal migrant citizens, the Greek minister explained.
He also mentioned that the “largest countries” in the group of five EU states that developed this plan are already in discussions with third countries in Africa with which an agreement could be reached to establish such return centers there.
According to Universul.net, the objective is for the plan to be finalized by the time the European Parliament votes in a few months on a new European regulation on repatriations that will allow the creation of these centers, if the vote is favourable.
“There is a problem with returns of migrants throughout Europe,” the Greek minister quoted above stressed, adding that the creation of such centers would also act as a “deterrent” to illegal migration.
In recent years, Greece has carried out between 5,000 and 7,000 migrant repatriations annually, while between 40,000 and 50,000 migrants arrive in this country each year, of which only about half receive asylum.
To combat migration, Greece adopted a law this month that limits public funding provided to NGOs and introduces penalties of at least 10 years in prison for members of these organizations who facilitate the illegal entry of migrants into the country.
The law also stipulates that if a member of an NGO is merely charged – even if not yet convicted – with such a crime, the state may remove the organization from the NGO Register managed by the Ministry of Migration. Registration in this register is a prerequisite for these civil society groups to carry out activity in Greece.
With the massive migration wave of 2015, Greece became one of the main entry points into Europe for illegal migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Greek authorities have since opened numerous legal proceedings against NGO activists and traffickers.
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