The Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Dimitris Kairidis, analysed on ERT what the new agreement in the EU on immigration means for Greece, and at the same time, denied the deal for the arrival of 500,000 workers from Pakistan. On the contrary, as he said, Greece is studying the possibility of bringing “a low-skilled workforce, with conditions and rules, because our economy needs it” from Georgia, Moldova, Armenia and possibly India.
There are special clauses to decongest the islands
“We have achieved a lot. We should rightly feel pleased about Europe as a whole. It was a very difficult negotiation that started in 2016, it actually accelerated after ’20, and the goal is to close it at the European Parliament, which will have to ratify the new agreement before the European elections finally”, the minister told “Sindeses”.
And as he added, “The most important thing is the introduction for the first time of a mandatory solidarity mechanism next to the responsibility of the first receiving states. For the first time, the solidarity of all the others enters.” In particular, as he said, asylum seekers will be proportionally distributed throughout Europe and not stay only in the country of first reception.
Speaking about the economic alternative requested by some countries, he explained to the journalists Kostas Papachliminzo and Christina Vidou that “in a period of crisis, that is, in a period of sharp increase in flows, there is no economic alternative. Hungary, Poland and the rest of the Visegrad countries (including the Czech Republic and Slovakia) are obliged to help by recruiting people.” He even characterised the new EU agreement as “something very big that drastically changes the landscape of refugee management”.
Mr. Kairidis referred to the reception time of immigrants in the host countries, which is reduced from 10 years to 18 months, and the time to decongest the islands. “We were interested in not being trapped on the islands, in the Eastern Aegean or in the Evros, to create a superstructure of 30,000 and for the rest of the Europeans to wash their hands.” As he said, there are special decongestion clauses to avoid this problem.
“We also have a clause against instrumentalisation, which was an issue we put in after the experience of the 20s, which is very high on the agenda now in Finland, which has the problem with Russia. The country will be able to take extraordinary measures, close borders to speed up the asylum process and face the crisis of instrumentalisation by a bad neighbour”, he added.
Responding to the opposition’s criticisms, Mr Kairidis said that he does not know the terms of the agreement well, giving credit to Mr Kasselakis, saying that “it is a big step that SYRIZA is now talking about deportations”.
Regarding this, he stated that “it is important to get away from the naivety or stupidity of entitlement and to make the distinction that those who are not entitled to asylum, to save the international protection system, the returnees must be returned. And it is a taboo for the Left. The fact that SYRIZA takes this step in common sense and comes to our own positions is important. This is credited to Kasselakis, along with the defence expenditures,” argued Mr Kairidis.
In discussions with Georgia, Moldova and Armenia
Making a mocking comment that “there is the body of SYRIZA, but there is also Kasselakis”, the Minister of Immigration and Asylum also commented on the posts of the president of SYRIZA regarding the discussions between Mr Georgiadis and His Pakistani counterpart on the deal to bring in 500,000 migrants.
“There is a competition from the right between St. Kasselakis and Adonis Georgiadis. I think that Adonis will win this competition because it is in his field,” he commented.
As far as this issue is concerned, Mr. Kairidis replied that there is no agreement with Pakistan. “Pakistan’s minister can say whatever he wants. After all, one of the problems we have with Pakistan is that they don’t accept the refundable ones because when you are 200 million, and you have these financial problems, you want to share them if you can,” he said, mentioning that there was also a relative denial from Islamabad.
We make the decision for immigrants, not the traffickers.
“There is no agreement. There is an agreement in the works with Georgia, Moldova, possibly Armenia, and India, where the prime minister will say after Christmas about labour mobility to deal with the increased needs of the economy now that we are running at 3%. The economy is growing so fast, and we have these pressing needs, especially in the low-skilled, not only to bring in a workforce with terms and rules but specific numbers, as our economy needs. We make the decision, not the traffickers,” emphasised Mr. Kairidis.
Asked about the intra-party reaction by Mr Samaras to the immigration amendment, he replied, “We have a government that succeeds and legislates on the complicated immigration issue with five-sixths of the Parliament. This is something unprecedented both for Greek data and even more for European data.”
“We managed to bring all the opposition, except for the extreme right, to this line and sent a message that the middle road, the road of logic that says strict border protection on the one hand, but at the same time legal migration routes, as the economy needs them with our terms and rules, this is a middle ground. It is a reasonable policy that brings results,” noted Mr. Kairidis.
We received chaos from SYRIZA on immigration
Speaking about immigration, he stated that the climate six months ago (under the weight of the Pylos tragedy) has nothing to do with today, characterising Greece as an example to be emulated in Europe. He did not fail to mention the possible assumption by Theodoros Roussopoulos of the presidency of the Organization for the Protection of Human Rights, saying that “it is a success that reflects on the government as a whole and the effort that our country is making”.
Regarding the attitude of ND officials who reacted to the immigration amendment, he stated that “the objections are absolutely legitimate and absolutely justified in a society traumatised by the experience of 2015-’19, the trauma and tragedy of the mismanagement of immigration during SYRIZA”.
He added that they received chaos in the government, and on the islands, there is anxiety about not returning in ’15 with 800,000 illegal arrivals, speaking of a “very restrictive regulation”.
The Coast Guard saved half a million people.
Responding to the complaints about the role of the Coast Guard and the pushbacks, the Minister of Immigration and Asylum stated emphatically that “the Greek Coast Guard saves lives. This is the practicality, which is not written in the newspapers, that the Coast Guard saved half a million people.”
He added that “the centre-left European voter does not want this chaos at the border. They do not want the illegals. They want order and a situation that we bring to Greece. That is why today, little Greece, in the most difficult corner of Europe, has the longest sea border with a difficult neighbour that is more than a thousand miles.”