Alternate Migration Policy Minister Ioannis Mouzalas rejected criticism the government has not done enough to pressure Turkey to implement the Readmission Agreement. He said that consecutive governments have had difficulty convincing the neighboring country to take action.

Responding to questions from the main opposition conservative New Democracy party on the refugee crisis in Greek Parliament on Friday, Mouzalas said that in 2014, Greece submitted 409 requests to Turkey to readmit 9,691 people of which only 470 were accepted, while in 2015 it made 605 requests for 9,300 people, but only 2,624 readmissions were accepted.

Mouzalas presented figures that 10,390 returns had taken place in 2015 and 11,668 in 2014.

The minister said that the claim that 50,000 refugees are being accepted in Greece is false as this will be a temporary settlement of people which will be divided as follows: 7,000-10,000 will stay in the so-called hotspots, 20,000 in subsidized rental locations and 20,000 in refugee camps which the government, along with the UN’s refugee agency is trying to “break down” to smaller ones.

ND lawmakers claims that hotspots on the islands would hurt tourism, Mouzalas said that the registration centers need to be created where the refugees disembark, hence their creation is the only way to help tourism.

“The increase in flows creates the identification centers. It’s not the identification centers that create the flows,” he explained.