Mr. Mitsotakis in ‘Good morning Britain’: Without a clear message that you are protecting the borders, more will enter illegally

“In the Immigration we have a strict, but fair policy,” said the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in an interview given earlier in the morning on the show “Good Morning Britain” of the television network ITV. Mr. Mitsotakis explained that “in the last 3 years we have accepted more than 50,000 asylum applications, therefore no one has the right to accuse Greece of not respecting human rights”.

At the same time, however, as he said, “I have an obligation to protect our borders.” He called on Turkey to honor its own part of the EU-Turkey Joint Declaration of 2016. “We call on Turkey to honor its own part of the agreement with the EU, it can do more to curb illegal immigration.” Mr. Mitsotakis warned, however, that “If you do not send a clear message that you are protecting your borders, more people will try to enter Greece illegally.”

Mr. Mitsotakis confirmed that during his meeting with the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson later today he will raise the issue of the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures at the Acropolis Museum. “I will raise the issue with the British Prime Minister and I believe that the approach that the Marbles belong to the British Museum because they have always been there is anachronistic. We want a definitive return of the Marbles, but we are not talking about lending them. “They have not left Greece in the past. I’m sure a solution can be found.”

On the face of managing the coronary pandemic, the prime minister made it clear that the government has no intention of following the Austrian model, which imposes a total lockdown on the unvaccinated, noting the increase in vaccination rates over the past two weeks, citizens to book their holidays in Greece for the summer of 2022 from now on.

Source: AMPE