Notis Mitarachi

Pope Francis arrives today for a three-day visit to Greece, world agencies reported.

The pope is expected to land in Athens at 11:10 a.m. He will arrive from Cyprus.

Greece on Nov. 27 opened two more of its new "closed" migrant camps that have been criticized by rights groups for their restrictive measures.

"A new era is beginning," Minister of Migration Notis Mitarachi said announcing the opening of the camps on the islands of Leros and Kos.

Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and Greece's migration and asylum minister met in the Turkish capital Ankara on Nov. 2.

Soylu and Notis Mitarakis as well as accompanying delegations met behind closed doors and discussed migration and the fight against terrorism along with security issues, the sources said.

Four children died and 22 others were rescued after a boat carrying irregular migrants sank off the coast of Chios, a Greek island located a couple of sea miles away from the Turkish mainland.

Greek officials announced that one person was still missing after the incident which was the latest in a string of similar tragedies that claimed the lives of migrants en route to Europe.

Europeans must honor their commitments to Turkey as part of a migration deal signed in 2016, the Greek minister for migration and asylum said on Oct. 4. 

Notis Mitarachi said the EU-Turkey migration deal must be implemented by both sides to manage the refugee flows and stem illegal trafficking in the Aegean Sea.

The Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Notis Mitarakis, analyzed the new measures announced yesterday at the Thessaloniki International Fair by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, for MEGA television.

As he stressed, the government has given priority to young people, the vulnerable and households.

Europe has to create humanitarian corridors for refugees fleeing from Afghanistan in orther to avoid uncontrolled flows of illegal immigrants, Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said on Tuesday in an interview.

The European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, is on a two-day visit to the Greek islands of Samos and Lesvos, marking the allocation of over a quarter-billion euros of EU funds to the Greek state towards construction of new migrant reception facilities on the Aegean islands.

Residents of Orestiada in the Evros border region in northwestern Greece greeted visiting Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis on Monday with a hail of stones, firecrackers, eggs and plastic cups of coffee to express their opposition to government plans to increase the capacities of the local reception and identification center for asylum seekers and the pre-departure detention facility.

Τhe muncipal council of Mytilene, the main town of the island of Lesvos, voted for the establishment of a new reception and identification structure for temporary migrants and refugees at a meeting late Wednesday.

The new facility was marginally approved in a virtual meeting that ended at midnight with 16 votes in favor and 15 against.