ATHENS – Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi sternly attacked Turkey, saying that it was “daily putting human lives at risk,” while addressing the 1st International Migration Review Forum taking place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on May 17-20, 2022.

Referring to EU-Turkey Joint Statement which, as he explained, Turkey is failing to uphold, he underlined that the neighbouring country “daily putting human lives at risk in the Aegean and at the land borders. We point out that Turkey has chosen not to offer protection to all refugees, as is required under the Geneva Convention.”

Finally, Mitarachi asked the EU “to take further action, through a common European protection area.” Referring to trafficker networks and the protection of EU’s external borders, he said: “We can’t allow the traffickers to decide who comes and lives in Europe. Besides, we do not neighbour with war zones, apart from Ukraine, but with the member-states of the EU, NATO and the Council of Europe.”