(AFP) Greece’s government has cautiously welcomed a plan from Brussels to reform the EU’s shaky asylum system, but charity groups working with refugees on the ground have blasted a continued “outrageous containment policy.”
The “New Pact on Migration and Asylum” was unveiled on Wednesday and calls for a tougher stance on returning migrants who do not have the right to stay in the EU, and ratcheting up border controls.
Such moves are music to the ears of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ conservative government, which has been operating a harsh migration policy since taking power over a year ago.
The only flaw from Greece’s perspective is the Commission giving up on quota-based redistribution of asylum seekers among EU countries — a plan first mooted during the migration crisis of 2015 but which foundered on opposition from several member states.
