ATHENS — Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis focused on the six-point policy on migration during his visit on Wednesday to the migration and asylum ministry. "I believe that this policy moves at exactly that point where national sovereignty and international legality with humanism and the rights of migrants intersect," he said.

He pointed to the decline of migrants flows: "From 72,000 in 2019 they dropped to roughly 15,000 in 2020 and only 2,500 in the first quarter of 2021. An impressive reduction which, I believe, has been totally perceptible, first of all on the eastern Aegean islands, which have suffered from the repercussions of the migration and refugee problem".

On his part, Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi said, among others: "We have met two important targets. First, the substantial reduction of the flow of migrants so that our country is not a entrance gateway for trafficking rings. Our second target was to drastically limit the impact of the migration crisis on local communities, especially the border regions and the five islands of the eastern Aegean, which in recent years have borne the burden of the crisis for the entire EU."

The prime minister toured the new facilities of the ministry and talked with employees.