Mitsotakis to Bild: We do not do pushbacks

“What we did from the beginning, when I took over the government, was to impose a strict but I think fair immigration policy. Let me remind you that six months after taking office we were essentially faced with an organized invasion of illegal immigrants in Greece, i.e. on European soil” notes Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his interview with journalists Paul Ronzheimer and Liana Spyropoulou which was shown on the Bild newspaper’s website.

“Thanks to the wall and our overall immigration policy, fewer irregular immigrants are coming to Greece, that is, to Europe. If you look at the absolute numbers, there is evidence for what I am saying. In 2015, 75% of illegal migrant entries into Europe took place through Greece. Now it’s less than 10%,” he adds.

“The fence does not solve the problem by itself”

The Prime Minister repeats that a barrier, a fence, a wall is not going to solve the problem by itself. “We need a comprehensive migration policy which includes how we manage secondary flows, a fair sharing of burdens in terms of those we have accepted as refugees, what we do with returns. This is absolutely critical. Those who are not entitled to refugee status must return to their countries of origin,” he says, emphasizing that if we want to have a Schengen zone with free movement of people, we must ensure that we protect our internal space.

In response to a question about how Scholz and Macron will be convinced, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, after estimating that Macron has been convinced, underlines “I have an obligation to the citizens to protect our territory and to ensure that there will never be a return to a situation where everyone could enter without a trace of respect for the rules of my country.’

“I will press the European Union for maximum support. If this is not possible, we will build the fence with national funds. It’s expensive, but it’s completely feasible for a country like Greece,” he adds.

Finally, the prime minister clarifies that Greece is not re-promoting. “However, we prevent illegal entries by sea. I am very clear about that and we strongly believe that this falls within the EU regulations. But at the same time, we have saved thousands of people at sea who were at risk of drowning. I want to be very clear about this, and I also want to explain it to your readers: the fewer people we have at sea, the less likely we are to have drownings at sea,” he emphasizes.