Greek Alternate Migration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas on Thursday met Turkey’s Deputy Interior Minister Sebahattin Ozturk in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss the implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement on migration.
“We expressed our support for the problems caused by the coup attempt and our opposition to the coup,” Mouzalas told Greek correspondents after the meeting. He said the Greek government was holding talks since the problem affected Greek territory and Turkey was a neighbouring country, making suggestions and proposals to improve implementation.
Mouzalas noted the significant reduction in refugee flows to Greece compared with the same period last year. This indicated that Turkey was holding up its end of the agreement, he added. While there had been a slight increase in flows after the coup attempt, there was no indication from the meeting that this was a result of political intention, the minister said.
Commenting on the slow implementation in terms of returning the migrants arriving in Greece to Turkey, Mouzalas noted that those arriving immediately applied for asylum and thus significantly slowed the process, so that there were now 9,500 asylum seekers on Greek islands whereas only a dozen or so returned each day.
The Greek side also reported the addition of two new routes for refugees to Greece since the coup, toward Rhodes and Kalymnos, with the Turkish side offering assurances that the problem will be dealt with. Greece also asked that Turkey agree to the return of refugees that are transferred from islands to other parts of Greece because they have displayed delinquent behaviour, since the agreement currently stipulates that returns can only be made for refugees on the islands.
The two sides also agreed to the appointment of coast guard attaches at the Greek embassy in Ankara and the Turkish embassy in Athens, while they also discussed the eight Turkish military officers that fled Turkey after the coup and sought refuge in Greece, applying for asylum.
Mouzalas also dismissed suggestions that refugee flows had fallen because countries on the ‘Balkan Route’ had closed their borders, pointing out that 1000-1300 continued to arrive each day before the EU-Turkey deal was signed, even with the borders closed to the north. The EU had also significant behind with its pledges to help Greece, he added. Only 19 of the 400 specialist staff pledged to Greece to help process asylum applications had arrived, he pointed out, and Europe had so far relocated on 3,000 of the 66,000 refugees it had promised to relocate in two years.
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