Meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties&nbsp;on the situation of hotspots in Greece, in the EP in Brussels. Debate with Ioannis MOUZALAS, Greek Alternate Minister of Immigration Policy, Roberta METSOLA (EPP, MT), Birgit SIPPEL (S&amp;D, DE), Notis MARIAS (ECR, EL), Cornelia ERNST (GUE/NGL, DE), Judith SARGENTINI (Greens/EFA, NL) and Malin BJ&Ouml;RK (GUE/NGL, SE).

Brussels

EU - Greece (T)

debate

meeting

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

MARIAS, Notis (ECR, EL)

SIPPEL, Birgit (S&D, DE)

SARGENTINI, Judith (Greens/EFA, NL)

BJÖRK, Malin (The Left, SE)

ERNST, Cornelia (The Left, DE)

MOUZALAS, Ioannis (EL)

The situation of hotspots in Greece: extracts from the debate with Ioannis MOUZALAS, Alternate Minister of Migration Policy of Greece

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Ioannis MOUZALAS, Greek Alternate Minister of Immigration Policy, For the future we will create a plan with DG HOME/DG ECO and the idea is to raise the number from 20.000 to 30.000 more housing possibilities in 2017 and the camps will come down from 50 to 20 or 25 and in 2018 we will close other camps and we will create 10.000 further housing slots.

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Ioannis MOUZALAS, Greek Alternate Minister of Immigration Policy, It was an excellent report Cecilia, I don&rsquo;t agree with everything that&rsquo;s in it but the fact that we consider Ms. Wilkstom&rsquo;s report could be a good basis for discussion is already very important for us because we think that the proposals made by the Commission are not even a basis for discussion as far as we are concerned. The way in which solidarity is being presented, well it isn&rsquo;t solidarity, there is no solidarity there the way in which Dublin is being changed shows us very clearly that whatever the political outlook you may have this won&rsquo;t be practicable.

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Ioannis MOUZALAS, Greek Alternate Minister of Immigration Policy, We&rsquo;ve had great difficulties with housing and if we have new flows of refugees and if we are asked to do what Dublin says we would then have to confront the fact that Greece has no asylum services and no welcome centres, it will destroy Greece it will destroy Europe in the future and it will create enormous problems for the refugees and migrants themselves. The same is true of Italy or for any other country that might find itself in this situation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA (EPP, MT), If you could expand a little bit to what is happening in that regard and whether you would say that the resources that you have and the resources on the ground are proportionate to the challenges you continue to face, whether on the mainland or on the islands.

SOUNDBITE (English), Birgit SIPPEL (S&amp;D, DE), Do you have a possibility first to qualify those staff members that you do need and second are there any restrictions to look for additional staff because of austerity?

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Notis MARIAS (ECR, EL), It&rsquo;s unacceptable to accuse those people (from Moria or other islands) of populism, those people that live on those islands, because they gave shelter to many thousands of people in the past.

SOUNDBITE (German), Cornelia ERNST (GUE/NGL, DE), On the allocation process for minors, how does that work with minors? could we be here again a bit more specific with this issue of relocation, what issues exist there and what needs to be done by the Commission, the Council and the EU? where do you need stronger support?

SOUNDBITE (English), Judith SARGENTINI (Greens/EFA, NL), I would like to hear the reflections of the Minister, and thank you for being with us again, on the statement of the ECJ Luxembourg that they are not the right party to judge the returns of people from Greece to Turkey. My question is from where people go then to get their democratic right?

SOUNDBITE (English), Malin BJ&#214;RK (GUE/NGL, SE), We have heard that there are talks and pressure on Greece to modify the legislation in order to make it possible for the return to Turkey of people belonging of categories of vulnerable people, including minors, which are currently today then exempted from this return. Is it true that the Commission and Council is pushing to that direction Mr. Minister?

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Ioannis MOUZALAS, Greek Alternate Minister of Immigration Policy, It seems to me that there is a great deal of hypocrisy, I am sorry to say it but everybody points the finger in Greece about the unaccompanied minors and asking about what we are doing but I am sorry to say that this is a scandal in Europe, not a scandal in Greece, in 7 months we have set up 400 places for them, and what about Europe? There are some 2.200 unaccompanied minors in Greece and as part of the relocation procedure, Europe is only going to take 650.

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Ioannis MOUZALAS, Greek Alternate Minister of Immigration Policy, It&rsquo;s not necessarily the lack of funding, it&rsquo;s that the member states don&rsquo;t want to help the asylum office. This is not criticism directly to EASO it&rsquo;s more that I am critising those member states that are not helping the EASO given the situation which is arising.