College of Commissioners to discuss today a temporary Schengen suspension

We have found a place to host 1,000-1,500 refugees in Attica, said Mr. Mouzalas

Alternate Migration Minister Yiannis Mouzalas announced today that the government has found an area in Attica where 1,000-1,500 refugees will be hosted, without though, revealing the exact location.

He said that all the people to be hosted there will be refugees who will relocate to other European countries. As he said, the ministry has already secured 20,000 places in rooms to rent all over Greece and there are already 5,000 places and hopes to create 5,000 more as soon as possible.

Mr. Mouzalas also admitted that things will be difficult for Greece in today’s meeting of the College of Commissioners for the construction of hotspots since November’s “report is bad,” as he said adding, though, that “it is true that the works have not progressed as they should have done so” and reiterated that the hotspots will be ready by the end of February and will operate in early March.

Moreover, he implied that the Defence ministry is also responsible for the delay by referring to Minister of Defence Panos Kammenos. “Mr. Kammenos does the same as everyone else…He gives less of what we request and want to exchange it with something else, the same as the mayors do.”

Mr. Mouzalas stressed that in Europe “they are playing an incrimination game against Greece on the refugees influx. With the only exception of the Belgian minister that his government contradicted him, nobody has set a Schengen issue, neither Avramopoulos nor Timmermans. All the European officials were clear but a certain climate is created through leaks.

“The Belgian Minister (Theo Francken) can’t say ‘I don’t care if you drown them…push them back’. It is a crime and he shouldn’t have said something like that,” stressed Mr. Mouzalas.

Concluding the Greek Migration Minister noted that “the Frontex acknowledges that Greece is doing an excellent job, but Europe is divided over the refugees issue…We are making alliances in order to promote our positions.”