Greece, long a gateway to Europe for refugees, wants to join several other EU countries in discussing deporting rejected asylum seekers to Africa. This was stated by the Greek Minister of Migration Thanos Plevris, quoted by "Reuters".
Greece was at the forefront of the migrant crisis in Europe in 2015-2016, when more than a million people from the Middle East reached its shores.
In recent years, the migrant influx has weakened, but two Aegean islands closest to the African coast - Crete and Gavdos, which is the southernmost tip of Europe, have seen a sharp increase in arrivals from North Africa.
The Minister of Migration indicated that he had discussed with Germany the issue of creating the so-called "migrant return centers" in Africa and Athens has officially expressed its interest in such an initiative.
"There is already a discussion with some safe African countries about accepting illegal migrants that we (as EU member states) cannot deport", he noted.
In September, the Dutch government said that the Netherlands and Uganda had agreed to cooperate in returning rejected asylum seekers via Uganda as a transit point. However, this scheme will only apply to people from countries close to Uganda.
"If these (return) centres are outside Europe, they would certainly be a deterrent (for migrants and refugees) because imagine sending an Egyptian who is heading to Europe to Uganda," Plevris explained.
Uganda has also reached an agreement with the US to accept third-country nationals who may not be granted asylum in the United States but do not wish to return to their countries of origin.
Greece has hardened its stance on migrants under the centre-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, which has expanded the fence on its northern land border with Turkey and stepped up maritime patrols since coming to power in 2019.
To stem the flows to Crete and Gavdos, Greece suspended asylum applications from people between July and October. arriving by sea from North Africa despite protests from human rights organizations.