The Minister of Immigration and Asylum sends details of recent events in Evros to the prosecutor, Notis Mitarakis.

Informing the competent committee of Parliament, together with the Minister for the Protection of Citizens, Takis TheodorikakosReferring to current developments in the field of immigration, and in particular in connection with, as he said, “new attempts to instrumentalize human suffering”, he emphasized that Greece does not accept that we are the entry gate for groups of smugglers.

Regarding the specific incident on Evros, he said that Greece certainly provides the right to apply for asylum “38”, which is under consideration, as well as providing appropriate living conditions and, if necessary, the necessary medical care. .

However, he stressed that the competent authorities are carefully studying the case and assessing the data collected.

#euro: Significant inconsistencies in the island’s “immigrant history” emerge from the study. Which I will forward to the prosecutor’s office of the Supreme Court so that they can be linked to the relevant case materials. pic.twitter.com/lFyelPCDTF

— Notis Mitarakis (@nmitarakis) August 30, 2022

In particular, he said that as a result of research and analysis of the data, there are currently “significant inconsistencies” in the “history of the island’s immigrants”, which “I will refer to the Office of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court so that they can be linked to the relevant case materials.”

As Mr. Mitarakis said, “38 themselves released a video from the islet, which presented by British TV channel“.

“Firstly, in the video they themselves say that it was filmed on the island, on August 15 at 13:00. But as they themselves testified, they say that on the morning of August 14 they went to the Greek coast. So they spread rumors that they were trapped while they were gone. How did they leave? With a boat left by a passer-by. Others say they found the boat from 13.08 but were “afraid to cross” and said there was an immediate danger to their health. Of course, the question arises whether one can be considered stranded on the island when the distance from the Greek coast was 15 meters, shallow water. I myself traveled this distance a week ago,” said Mr. Mitarakis.

He also said that “the video was talking about serious health problems. One sister (9-year-old Quince) in the video says that she was seriously ill for several days, but this is not true, as it turned out that she was healthy. It’s the same with a pregnant woman, in the video they say that she started bleeding, but according to the hospital, she has no problems with pregnancy.”

“Finally, it became known that a dead child was buried on the islet,” Mr. Mitarakis said and noted: “What we know: According to foreign media, he died before August 10.. He is buried on an island, unmarked, in an unknown place, unknown to his parents. I note this because among the 38 people there were people who knew how to send the exact location through the application on a mobile phone. There is no photo or video of a sick child, burial place, burial place, etc.”

Mr. Mitarakis noted that he is unable to get the European Court of Human Rights’ written correspondence in the minutes of Parliament due to the confidentiality clause, but, he said, “this is not necessary – dear colleague Mr. Katrougalos tweeted the list August 19 (9:39 – August 19, 2022)”:

“The EDAD list mentions a family, I won’t repeat the last name, although many did, 4 children. At positions 10 and 37 pairs. Two children from the first marriage at positions 22 and 23. Two young children are listed separately from the couple’s current marriage at positions 35 and 36. These two children are listed with the father’s surname, nationality SYRIA, and year of birth 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Two children were rescued and are on the territory of Greece. With two differences. One, instead of the 2018 birth date given in the court document, was declared born in 2019. Another, with a difference of one letter in the name, Maya instead of Maria. Note that Maya is also used as a diminutive of Mary. Mary is also to remember, they call the mother. You may ask how often mother and daughter share the same name. In total, from 01/01/2021 to date, 6,575 asylum applications have been submitted from Syrian citizens, but not a single case with the same name in the same family has been found. On this fact, it was originally reported, after his arrival in Greece, that the deceased was the twin of the three-year-old Khanin, but now it is reported that she was the twin of Maya. But the 5th child was not on the court’s list,” Mr. Mitarakis said.

He continued by saying, “Other than the statements from the parents, of the other statements received, very few relate to the death of a little girl on a small island. While they were all sitting together on the island, as seen in the video.”

These facts, the Minister of Immigration and Asylum reiterated, “will be referred to the prosecutor’s office for a court decision” and added: “Unfortunately, the respected decision of the family, accepted by all, to not allow the Turkish authorities to be exhumed and transported to Greece for a decent funeral, this obviously complicates investigation”.

Finally, he noted that all EU countries, regardless of the political orientation of the government, are not in the mood to make significant resettlements in the event of an increase in arrivals: “Good wishes, but here we have a reality that requires the unshakable protection of our borders” write down.

• While Europe is seeing a 57% increase in flows, Greece is no longer the main gateway. We have reduced overall flow in 2021 by 88% compared to 2019. This is the lowest in a decade, and 2022 could be the second-best year.
• We have supported local communities, local government with 85 million euros since 2020.
• We have reduced the impact of the crisis and have shown in practice that we are grateful to the local communities that bear this special burden.
• The international situation remains unstable.
• In this context, determination, unity and a national strategy are needed.