To Naples in Italy The Ministers of the Med5 (Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Malta) met yesterday and today who are responsible for the management of migration. In the Ministerial Council, the Minister of Immigration and Asylum participated from our country Makis Voridis who, after the completion of work, in a statement to RES-EIA, underlined:

‘The command I have from the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakisis to try to deal with something that seems to be deeply irrational, in whole immigration policy. What’s that? On the one hand, Greece needs workers’ hands to cover various sectors of the economy in which there is a productive gap and in which there is demand for human resources. A typical sector is the agricultural work, as is the construction sector. There is a demand for labor hands but, on the other hand, for some reason, the procedures for the invocation are not effective, in order to work legally the immigrants we need. At the same time, there is an influx of immigrants – especially for those who are rejected by their asylum and are essentially illegal immigrants – so we have the presence of illegal immigrants rather than permanent. It is a double issue, a contradiction and a malfunction in immigration policy.

Concerning the illegal immigration here in Naples, we said, first, that there can be no effective asylum policy unless there is an effective return policy. Otherwise, whatever it is for asylum, they remain legally and they do not stay illegally, but everyone stays. So, in order to acquire this process true meaning and to separate people who actually need humanitarian protection from those who enter the country illegally, there must be an effective return mechanism. This policy of returns is, for us, a political priority and today it has satisfied me that I heard it is a political priority for the European Commission, as well as for my colleagues in Med 5. That is, at least for the Mediterranean countries – assisted voluntary returns, but also compulsory returns. We have to work much more to increase the rate of returns of illegal immigrants. At the same time, however, we need to shape institutional frameworks such as to operate the invitations and to operate legal immigration to meet the needs of the work market. Both have to be done, both of which are our political priority and are reflected – along with many others – in the text we adopted here in Naples. “

Answering a RES-EIA question if the agreement recorded at its countries level Med5can also help with regard to the whole process of decision -making in Brussels, Mr. Voridis underlined:

“We had a good discussion with the responsible European Commissioner who was with us today. At the moment, the European Commission’s key priorities are two: the first is the implementation of the pact for the Asylum, which has been adopted and all work for its implementation must be done by June 2026. The second is the debate on the new regulation on the ongoing returns. In both issues, Greece is on time and “front”. On the issue of asylum, in many things that are demanded in other countries (such as the formation of effective identification, recording and first reception mechanisms) we are far ahead, because we had received all the migration pressure and with it my predecessors were very much involved. And in the other issue – that is, the rapid, reliable and effective judgment of asylum applications so that they do not have time – our country is now far ahead of the times that have been set. What we need is to devise, as provided in the pact, a plan to deal with crisis. By that we mean what to do, when one suddenly begins to receive a much larger number of immigrants and refugees than usual, because of a crisis. So the crisis management plan is an important point where we have to work for asylum. All this is asylum, but there are new points, which are mainly linked to the return mechanism, which we are now negotiating. We wish, part of the forecasts of the return mechanism, the one concerning the new regulation that is negotiated at this stage- to bring it forward, to legislate it. So this is also a part of the work we are dealing with in the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum. ”