ATHENS (Reuters) -Greece, long a gateway to Europe for refugees, wants to join several other EU countries in discussing the deportation of rejected asylum seekers to Africa, the Greek migration minister said on Wednesday.
Greece was at the forefront of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015-2016 as more than one million people from the Middle East reached its shores.
Migrant flows have ebbed in recent years but two Aegean islands nearest the African coast, Crete and Gavdos which is Europe’s southernmost tip, have seen a steep rise in arrivals from North Africa.
Migration Minister Thanos Plevris told Greece’s public broadcaster ERT that he had discussed with Germany the issue of setting up so-called ‘migrant return hubs’ in Africa and Athens had officially expressed its interest in such an initiative.
“There is already a discussion with some safe African countries for the reception of illegal migrants that we (as EU member states) cannot deport,” Plevris said.
German officials were not immediately available for comment.
The Netherlands and Uganda have agreed to cooperate on returning rejected asylum seekers via Uganda as a transit point, the Dutch government said in September. However, that scheme would only apply to people from countries near Uganda.
“If those (migrant return) centres are outside Europe, they would absolutely be a deterrent (for migrants and refugees) because, imagine sending an Egyptian who embarks for Europe to Uganda instead,” Plevris said.
Uganda has also reached an agreement with the U.S. to receive nationals from third countries who may not get asylum in the United States but are reluctant to return to their countries of origin.
Greece has hardened its stance towards migrants under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ centre-right government, which has expanded a fence on its northern land border with Turkey and boosted sea patrols since it came to power in 2019.
To stem flows to Crete and Gavdos, Greece in July-October stopped processing asylum requests from people arriving by sea from North Africa, despite protests by human rights groups.
(Reporting by Renee MaltezouEditing by Gareth Jones)
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