Greece will be faced with an unprecedented wave of refugees and migrants if the European Union-Turkey agreement collapses, said Deputy Migration Minister Yiannis Mouzalas.
Mouzalas gave a press conference on Tuesday morning in the presence of the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Greece Philippe Leclerc and European Asylum Support Office (EASO) representatives. He warned that an additional 180,000 migrants and refugees will land on Greece from Turkey if the deal between the EU and the neighboring country is canceled.
Mouzalas further said that the government’s plan to build new camps for refugees and migrants throughout the country will be completed by Christmas. He said that gradually, every month, new camps will be added in order to decongest the overcrowded existing camps on the islands and mainland Greece.
Meanwhile, the deputy minister admitted that this time the government has “lost” 4,000 migrants and refugees, namely those who have not appeared for the pre-registration process.
However, he said, the Greek government intends to proceed with the necessary legislation so that the stranded migrants in Greece will have rights to education, work, housing and health.
Regarding the figures for the June 9-July 30 period, 27,592 refugees and migrants went through the pre-registration process, with 57% of them being men and 43% women.
In total, there are 1,225 unaccompanied children in the camps. Also,
almost one in two families (48%) who participated in the pre-registration have two or more children.
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