ATHENS, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Greece, long a gateway to Europe for refugees, wants to join several other EU countries in discussing the deportation of rejected asylum seekers to Africa, the Greek migration minister said on Wednesday.
Greece was at the forefront of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015-2016 as more than one million people from the Middle East reached its shores.
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Migration Minister Thanos Plevris told Greece’s public broadcaster ERT that he had discussed with Germany the issue of setting up so-called ‘migrant return hubs’ in Africa and Athens had officially expressed its interest in such an initiative.
“There is already a discussion with some safe African countries for the reception of illegal migrants that we (as EU member states) cannot deport,” Plevris said.
German officials were not immediately available for comment.
“If those (migrant return) centres are outside Europe, they would absolutely be a deterrent (for migrants and refugees) because, imagine sending an Egyptian who embarks for Europe to Uganda instead,” Plevris said.
Greece has hardened its stance towards migrants under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ centre-right government, which has expanded a fence on its northern land border with Turkey and boosted sea patrols since it came to power in 2019.
To stem flows to Crete and Gavdos, Greece in July-October stopped processing asylum requests from people arriving by sea from North Africa, despite protests by human rights groups.
Reporting by Renee Maltezou
Editing by Gareth Jones
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