EU-backed program foresees voluntary repatriation for 5,000 migrants

Migration Policy Minister Notis Mitarakis and European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson on Thursday jointly announced the establishment of a European Union-backed program for the repatriation of 5,000 migrants from Greece. 

The aim of the program is to ease pressure on overcrowding state facilities on the Aegean islands, Johansson said following talks with Mitarakis at the Migration Ministry in Athens. Alternate Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos is expected to play a key role in the implementation of the program.

The program is to be a temporary one, giving a month to migrants currently in camps on the islands, and who arrived in Greece before January 1, 2020, to lodge a request with the authorities for their voluntary transfer to their homelands. They will each be given the sum of 2,000 euros. 

The repatriations are to be carried out by the authorities...

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