Athens -Greece did not want to be the entry point to the European Union for Afghanistan who escaped from increased conflict in their homeland, migration minister Notes Mitarachi said on Tuesday, calling for a common UE response to the crisis.
Greece was at the forefront of the European migration crisis in 2015, when nearly one million people fled the conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan landed on its islands, and like other UE member countries, it was nervous that developments in Afghanistan could trigger Replay from that crisis.
“We clearly say that we will not and cannot be a European gate for refugees and migrants who can try to come to the European Union,” Mitarachi told State Television End.
“We cannot have millions of people who leave Afghanistan and come to the European Union …
and of course not through Greece,” he said.
The EU Foreign Minister will hold a crisis meeting on Tuesday to discuss the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban and Greece has requested that this problem be discussed at the meeting of the Minister of EU home affairs on Wednesday.
“The solution must be common, and it must be a European solution,” Mitarachi said.
Unity between EU member countries regarding whether to deport Afghan asylum seekers failed last week.