Papoutsis meets with UNHCR European Bureau director

Greece fully abides with the EU and Geneva Pact obligations on the rights of refugees and migrants, citizens’ protection minister Christos Papoutsis said Monday, after a meeting with the director of the European Bureau of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Daniel Endres.
Papoutsis also said that Greece, in the midst of the current economic and social conditions, was making a super-human effort to deal with the huge weight of asylum requests but also the large number of illegal migrants attempting, via Greece, to reach other European countries, and called this a national effort.

Endres noted, in turn, that a very serious effort is being made in Greece, which has shown success.

He said the High Commission appreciates the ministry’s efforts for the establishment of a new asylum service and will back the issue of solidarity at European level, in the direction of equal distribution of the burden, so that the new asylum procedure may operate smoothly.