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Koumoutsakos: Decongestion of islands and acceleration of asylum procedures

Featured Koumoutsakos: Decongestion of islands and acceleration of asylum procedures

Deputy Migration Policy Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos said that a new 'corridor' of refugee and migrants flows has been formed in the last months between Alexandroupolis and Samothrace, in an interview with the Sunday edition of Kathimerini newspaper.

At the same time on Lesvos, said Koumoutsakos, we see a 44 percent increase in flows in comparison with the same period in 2018 which brings extra pressure to the already suffocating condition at Moria hotspot on Lesvos.
The minister accused SYRIZA government of low performance on the issue of readmissions and Turkey of not succeeding to uproot the traffickers’ rings and of inefficient supervision of its coasts.
Koumoutsakos reiterated that his ministry is elaborating a proposal at EU level on the readmissions and is in contact with the Republic of Cyprus and other EU state members to support it.
He said that the government's main priorities is the protection of the borders and the strict supervision at the hotspots, the decongestion of the islands and the acceleration of the asylum procedures in order to be held more effectively and always with respect to the international law.