The NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the Ad Hoc Group on the Mediterranean and the Middle East held in the Greek Parliament appointed a Minister for Immigration and Asylum, Notis Mitarakis.

Speaking in the Senate Hall of the Parliament, Mr. Mitarakis noted that the North Atlantic Alliance has been in existence for 73 years and in them successes in ensuring the security of member states and the world itself can be distinguished.

As the Minister of Immigration and Asylum said, the main priorities in dealing with the immigration issue were to reduce the number of arrivals in Greece, as well as reduce the impact of immigration on local communities.

Mr. Mitarakis then referred to efforts to instrumentalize immigration, noting that smuggling networks that try to smuggle people from Turkey or Libya to Europe should be tackled.

“Facilitating the entry of people into the country for the purpose of destabilizing it is clearly unacceptable,” he said, adding that Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine worsened the immigration situation.

“We provide immediate access and temporary protection to all displaced Ukrainians. People come directly to our countries, from the war zone,” he said.

“Where immigration becomes a geopolitical tool, illegal immigration becomes a security issue, a form of hybrid threat. The Geneva Convention, the main instrument of international asylum law, is fundamental to our legal systems,” explained the Minister of Immigration and Asylum.

He concluded: “We have made a public appeal to the Turkish authorities to prevent further illegal waste from its shores. It would be expected that the two NATO countries, whatever their differences, would be able to agree on the prevention of these dangerous journeys.