Government spokesman Stelios Petsas on Saturday stressed Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ firm support for the work of police authorities, “whose morals we rely on, so that Greek citizens can enjoy an essential sense of security,” speaking at the city of Alexandroupolis, northern Greece.
Petsas emphasised the strengthening of the police force and the measures taken to improve the guarding of the country’s borders.
Speaking to Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) after his address at the Alexandroupolis Police Directorate, he said that migration “is one of the so-called security issues, and to address it we are implementing a coherent plan,” and noted that concerning the Evros region “we are going ahead with the recruitment of some 400 border patrol officers, which is at the final stage at Evros, and we are also moving ahead with upgrading the logistical equipment available to regional staff.”
“In the context of safeguarding our borders, we are doing what we need to do to reduce flows (to Greece), as these have declined lately-both on land and sea, and we are speeding up asylum application procedures,” he elaborated.
Petsas then mentioned the start of the return of refugees to Turkey, as per the 2016 EU-Turkey Joint Declaration.Â
“We started returning (refugees) to Turkey last Friday and we continued through to this Friday,” he said and continued that “as far as those who are not entitled to asylum protection are concerned, the relevant ministry informs the police, the police then informs the relevant Turkish authority who then contacts Frontex, then the latter undertakes the returns to Turkey,” he concluded.
Sourced via AMNA.
