EU-backed repatriations program aim to ease pressure on islands

EU-backed repatriations program aim to ease pressure on islands 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 to their home countries.

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

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

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