Answer to his statement in Parliament during the debate on the immigration, was given by Makis Voridis, speaking to Realfm 97.8.
“The minister Migration incorporates amendments to the regulation on the Migration Pact and one of the, in my opinion, very important reforms in the whole framework of the management of migration flows is that it provides for return hubs outside Europe. This means that if asylum is refused, there is then the possibility that, instead of the detention for return being carried out in pre-removal centres in Greece, it could be outside. These pre-departure centres, that is, are now outside Europe, by agreement of European countries.
Great thing, it works as a deterrent. We’re getting criticism from the left saying that this is too much, that it violates human rights, that it’s too cruel. Fine, it opens up the debate that we are too tough on illegal immigration issues. And I also hear a criticism, supposedly, from the right, or I don’t know if they’re right-wingers and what they want to be called, which says we’re only managing migrant flows and not deterring them. This is the criticism I hear,” Voridis said, responding to criticism from the “left”, while continuing his response to the other “side”.
“What does it mean we are not doing deterrence? We haven’t done the fence on the Evros land border? We have zeroed out the inflows from there. We don’t do deterrence with our port, which is an insult to say we don’t? When we took Moria, it had 24,000 people in it, and today it has 250. And you’re telling me we’re not doing deterrence in the Aegean? We do deterrence in cooperation, the two port authorities, the Turkish and the Greek, and it works as a deterrent. And now we are left with Libya. So Libya had much more flows last year and the year before, and now we have made an agreement with Libya. Libya stops too many people from leaving, but some get through. So, having said all this, I say, excuse me, for those who are crossing, what do you propose, for those who criticise us for not deterring them? That we should sink them? I think the question is obvious, isn’t it? But it doesn’t need justification, nor can anyone twist it. I said not to sink them. This question has an obvious answer in the negative,” Voridis said, referring to an extremely restrictive framework applied by the country.
“Coherent government policy on migration”
“It is a coherent migration policy on the part of the government. Neither the left-wing thing, which sort of tells us to let everybody in and let them in, and there’s no restriction, nor on the other hand a populist critique that says I don’t care what you do, no one should come here. We may wish it, but there are realities,” he added.
“Do you remember when I proposed a law, which Thanos Plevris adopted and I said that we should criminalise illegal residence? That anyone who is not legally in Greece and stays in Greece will be a criminal offence? And again the left had stood up and shouted and said that it would have no effect. So there have been 700 arrests for illegal residence, of those 450 get a ticket to avoid serving their prison sentence and go home. They are voluntary departures after their conviction. Is the law working or not working? 25% decrease in flows from last year for the year as a whole. 50% reduction in flows in the first 5 months. So let the left come in and say we think this is all a restrictive framework, we want everyone to come, we want to welcome everyone, we want to try to include everyone, because we love everyone. Let them say they want open borders. Also, let all the other people who criticize us come and tell us how we can magically stop the flows completely,” the former minister continued.
What he said about the elections
Asked about the timing of the elections, Mr. Voridis stressed that the Prime Minister has reiterated that the polls will be held at the end of the four-year term, a view he said he agrees with, noting that there is considerable room for manoeuvre, mainly related to economic policy, which can improve the situation.
The ND MP admitted that dealing with inflation is difficult, saying that the “key” is to strengthen the competitiveness of the Greek economy.
“You can no longer see the competitiveness of the Greek economy with horizontal measures, you have to see it vertically. You have to look at it sectorally. So we cannot discuss competitiveness in general. To get to the general improvement of competitiveness, you have to look at it sector by sector. Who is your competitor, what is your comparative advantage, and what are the institutional interventions you can make as a management to improve firms in that industry to gain competitive advantage. This, as you can understand, is a bit of a nitpick. You have to go piece by piece to see what’s going on, and I think that’s the job we have to do in the next period of time, after the election. Now inevitably it’s going to go to measures a little bit classic, inflation moderation measures. But if we really want to start to diversify, what we call the production model etc, one has to look at the sectoral pieces one by one and what one can do about them,” Voridis stressed.
