National and EU policy vis-à-vis the explosive issue of asylum, immigration and illegal migration affecting the entire Union dominated a briefing in Parliament on Thursday by the relevant Greek minister, Makis Voridis, who told opposition and ruling party MPs that “we need a more effective system for returns”.
The European Commission last month published a proposal for a regulation to establish a common system for the return of third-country nationals staying illegally in the EU, also known as the “Return Regulation”.
Voridis, a prominent New Democracy (ND) minister who is ideologically on the party’s right wing, briefed the deputies on the occasion of the high-profile proposal by the European Parliament and Commission regarding the “Return Regulation”.
He added that a draft will be presented to the Cabinet this month, with the goal being to make the regime for returning/repatriating third country nationals more effective – essentially an update of a landmark EU Directive in 2008 (2008/115/EC) on those third country nationals residing illegally in EU countries.
“We need a more effective and operational framework for returns, without these, any migration policy is, in fact, null, void and meaningless. If you don’t have an effective framework for returns for those illegally within EU borders, any migration policy you want to implement is meaningless,” Voridis, who holds the immigration and asylum, said.
In citing figures, he said 97% of those irregularly entering the country declared that they want to file an asylum claim, meaning that a relevant prosecutor postpones any legal action until the asylum request is decided.
“This regulation seeks to create a single European return system, a European return order, meaning a decision to remove a third country citizen, which is taken in one state and validity will be recognized in all member states,” he noted.
“Of course, we agree that there must be returns of those who enter the country illegally and remain illegally, based always on the application of European and international law. However, the major issue for us is how to have an effective and efficient migration policy,” MP Nadia Giannakopoulou, representing main opposition PASOK, said in turn. She also noted that the figures on returns “show a failure”, compared to the pledges made by New Democracy before it took over it assumed power in 2019.
In a different vein, SYRIZA MP Costas Barkas said the proposed European Regulation is not a “neutral text”, but a view that sums up the EU’s shift from defending rights and peoples to “criminalizing people’s need for protection”.
“The Regulation turns returns into an exhaustive and criminal procedural system that restricts and abolishes voluntary departures, allows deportations, without guarantees, even before an appeal is decided,” he said.
