While speaking to Parliament on Friday, Greece’s Immigration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas conceded that the government is overwhelmed in its efforts to tackle the refugee crisis.
“It is true that we overburdened certain municipalities,” Mouzalas said in reference to northern Greece in particular.
“We didn’t succeed with Elliniko,” he said, regarding the state-run facility in southern Athens.
As far as the islands that have received a huge burden of migrants arriving via the Turkey-Greece route Mouzalas also highlighted that “there is a problem…Islanders are struggling to deal with overpopulation,” he said.
The government has been attempting to relocate many of the refugees on the islands to the mainland in a response to island mayors, but thus far only unaccompanied minors have been transported.
Mouzalas also commented to Parliament regarding the constant inflow of new arrivals to Greece saying that these days the type of individuals arriving are “between 70 and 80 percent migrants while before it was refugees,” meaning they are economic migrants instead of refugees fleeing violence and war and that they are not guaranteed international protection.
With uncertainty as to how to help improve Greece’s position regarding the refugee crisis, this Monday Mouzalas will meet with Prime Minister Tsipras for talks about the crisis.
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