“On Immigration, we have a strict, but fair policy,” said the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in an interview given earlier in the morning on the show “Good Morning Britain” on ITV.
Mitsotakis explained that “in the last 3 years we have accepted more than 50,000 asylum applications, therefore no one has the right to accuse Greece of not respecting human rights.”
He added that Greece had an “obligation to protect our borders,” while he called on Turkey to honour its part of the EU-Turkey Joint Declaration of 2016. “We call on Turkey to honour its own part of the agreement with the EU, it can do more to curb illegal immigration,” Mitsotakis warned. He continued by stressing that “If you do not send a clear message that you are protecting your borders, more people will try to enter Greece illegally.”
Kyriakos Mitsotakis confirmed that during his meeting with the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson later today he will raise the issue of the return of the Parthenon Sculptures at the Acropolis Museum. “I will raise the issue with the British Prime Minister and I believe that the approach that the Marbles belong to the British Museum because they have always been there is anachronistic. We want a final return of the Marbles, but we are not talking about borrowing them. We could offer the British Museum cultural treasures that have not come out of Greece in the past. I’m sure a solution can be found.”
On the Covid-19 pandemic management, the PM made it clear that his government did not intend to follow the model of Austria, where a total lockdown is imposed for the unvaccinated. He pointed to the increase in the vaccination rate in the last two weeks in Greece while encouraging British citizens to book their holidays in Greece for the summer of 2022 from now.
Greek Prime Minister rules out a full lockdown in Greece but says introducing COVID passports has been effective and encouraged people to get the vaccine.
Watch GMB now 👉 https://t.co/6iQ6ebeOEQ pic.twitter.com/77UmT8l25z
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) November 16, 2021
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