Panagiotopoulos:There is room in the existing system to accommodate possible war refugees
No more than 50,000 refugees and migrants are estimated to enter Greece this year, Migration and Asylum Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos said on Wednesday, speaking to Open TV, while he stressed that Greece's reception system will be able to cope with any war refugees that arrive.
"Our forecast this year, based on the data we have so far, is that the maximum number that will have entered our country, either from the coasts of Asia Minor, i.e. from the coasts of Turkiye to our islands or from the coasts of North Africa to South Crete, is about 50,000. This is the maximum number. I remind you that in 2016, 1.3 million had entered the country," he said.
Panagiotopoulos also pointed out that the capacity in the migrant reception facilities throughout Greece's territory - though not on the islands, where arrivals had pushed it 'into the red' - was at about 60%. "Therefore, there is still room in the system of reception facilities over the whole country to accommodate any war refugees," added the minister.
Referring to the pressure on the islands of the southeastern Aegean, the minister underlined that the occupancy rate of facilities in the southeastern Aegean was at 100 percent and that the government was gravitating toward a solution involving temporary detention centres for arrivals: "Reception facilities also incorporate an element of registration and identification - therefore a stay of several days - and we are not considering such a thing. What we are thinking of doing on Rhodes, if necessary also on Crete - so far [the numbers] do not justify this but we are considering scenarios, and, as you rightly say, the country must be prepared if the flows intensify - is to create temporary detention areas, something like large holding areas. Regarding the capacity of these centers, we will see, but I estimate around 500 people."
AMNA