By Penelope Galliou

On the subject of the escalation of migration flows, it will meet today at 12 noon at Maximos Palace the Governmental National Security Council (GNSC), in order to reportedly discuss both the situation at the country’s external borders and the course of discussions with Turkey regarding cooperation in this area and especially the port bodies of the two countries, but and for the promoted new agreement with Ankara.

“We are experiencing a deterioration in immigration,” admitted government representative Pavlos Marinakis making a prediction of 30,000 flows in the next period and assuring that we will not “return” to the numbers of 2015 while pointing out that the country now has mechanisms to examine asylum requests faster. “Where we had about 8,000 streams, we might get up to 30,000 streams. In no case is it predicted that we will reach the very difficult years when we had reached up to 800,000″, said the government representative yesterday.

According to government sources, the messages of the last 48 hours are encouraging as the number of arrivals has decreased significantly, which improves the picture but does not allow for complacency. At the KYSEA meeting, he is expected to inform Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Gerapetritis regarding the contacts he had in New York with European Commissioner Ylva Johansson and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan. During the meeting that Mr. Gerapetritis had with the European official, they discussed the immigration issue with the aim – according to information – of the E.U. to increase the funds to Ankara, in order for the Turkish authorities to contribute more effectively to the prevention of migration flows that start from the Turkish shores towards the Greek and by extension the European borders. “No matter how well the Greek state, the Greek authorities, work, this problem is not going to be solved unless there is a comprehensive treatment outside the borders”, the government representative emphasized, and from this the Greek side is focusing on the issue of dealing with illegal flows from traffickers and intensifies its contacts with the EU, Berlin – which has an active role – but also with Ankara.

The CYSEA The Minister of Migration Policy, Dimitris Kairides, who has assumed the responsibility of negotiating with both Brussels and Ankara, is expected to give an update as well, and is on the open line with his Turkish counterpart, Ali Gerlikaya, to whom he has informed that the current situation is unacceptable and that it is in the interest of both countries to have substantial cooperation, both bilaterally and at the European level, to combat illegal migration flows.

On Thursday, Mr. Kairides will have contacts in Brussels with Commissioner Ylva Johansson as well as the German side that is actively participating in the discussions, while next week he will meet with his Turkish counterpart. However, immigration is expected to be at the center of the EU-MED9 Summit that will be held in Malta next Friday, September 29, in which Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will participate.