ATHENS – "In the last three months we have tripled the asylum decisions and we will deliver 40,000 decisions in the next few weeks," stated Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi in an interview with SKAI TV on Tuesday.

Speaking about the management of the migration issue, Mitarachi underlined that the top priority was a rapid separation of those with a refugee profile from the econonic migrants.

Referring to the 92 accommodation facilities on the Greek mainland, he said that "the target is to shut down at least 60 of them by the end of this year".

Mitarachi presented figures according to which 60,000 people had been granted asylum in the last five years, of which 58,500 had found jobs to support themselves and a place to stay. The remaining 1,500 people were still in a transitional rent subsidy programme, the HELIOS programme, to which the 11,000 people due to exit the reception system currently have access.

On the reduction of migrant flows to the Greek islands in the last months, Mitarachi said that "due to the constant presence of the Hellenic Navy and the Coast Guard, the boats setting off from the Turkish coast do not cross the mid-line but finally turn around and go back".