Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi in his article on Sunday in Eleftheros Typos newspaper referred to the priorities and targets of the government's migration policy.
Mitarachi referred to a balance migration policy with strategic targets the reduction of the migrants flows as well as of the repercussions on the local communities. Migrants arrivals have dropped by 51 pct since the start of the year and 93 pct in the last three months while, as he said "the decongestion of the islands is now visible".
Decisions on asylum increased by 80 pct while the pending decisions have dropped, for the first time, below 100,000, said Mitarachi while the number of those hosted in the islands' hotspots have dropped by 22 pct while 17,000 refugees and asylum seekers have been transferred to facilities in the mainland.
The priorities for the next period are the Ministry' digital transformation and in the next period the system ALKYONI II and the control system in hotspots and other hosting facilities will be in full operation. The new closed-type hosting facilities on the islands of Kos, Leros and Samos will open in 2020, concluded Mitarachi.