Associated Press reports that the number of migrants arriving in Greece has dropped dramatically over the past two years, while the number of asylum-seekers living in the country has also fallen, Migration Minister Notis Mitarachis has said, ekathimerini.com reports.
Speaking Tuesday at an event marking the third anniversary of the Migration and Asylum Ministry’s foundation, Mitarachis credited the center-right government’s policies on migration for the drop, including increased border security, faster asylum procedures, and a tightening of migration laws.
The country saw the lowest number of arrivals in a decade in 2021, Mitarachi said, putting the figure at under 9,000 people. In 2015 at the height of the migration crisis, hundreds of thousands reached Greece, the vast majority making their way to islands from the nearby Turkish coast and then heading north through the Balkans to wealthier European countries.
“After the explosion in the period 2015-2019, in 2021 we had the lowest flows of the decade, 8,745, and steadily low in 2022 too,” Mitarachis said. “The result is that instead of 92,000 asylum seekers living in 121 facilities, we have today 14,000 in 33 facilities.”
In 2015, Mitarachis said, arrivals in Greece accounted for 75% of the total number of irregular arrivals in the European Union, while in 2022 that figure stood at just 5%. He added that Greece was also amending legislation to attract workers through legal migration for employment.
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