Caretaker minister says relief must be given to both refugees and local communities
A policy must be found that both relieves the plight of refugees but also the disruption they cause to local communities, Alternate Minister for Migration Policy Ioannis Mouzalas said on Tuesday, talking to SKAI TV.
"If this is not done together, there is a risk of antagonising local communities so that fascist views prevail," he added.
Mouzalas admitted that the problems on the Aegean islands had become worse and said that the ministry was making efforts to normalise the situation. He also noted that the problem was now a refugee rather than migration issue, meaning that there had been a qualitative change that helped to dealing with the problems.
He said that there were two aspects to this: one was to improve reception infrastructure and systems in Greece, while the second concerned policy on an EU level.
"You need to fix the Reception Centres, strengthen registration so that in two, three days these people can leave. Therefore, the staff need to be increased," he said, adding that the ministry was planning programmes to be put in place by the end of the week that will relieve the pressure on the islands.
In terms of the EU, Mouzalas said that the "things were maturing" in this direction and called for both a fairer distribution of the refugees in EU countries and greater funding for countries in the south, including Greece, that acted as gateways for refugees to Europe.
Concerning the situation on the Aegean island of Kos, which he visited on Monday, Mouzalas said that the conditions for refugees were bad while island residents also complained that the situation had cost them financially during the tourist season.
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