Minister of Thanos Plevris addressed the country’s migration policy and announced two categories of controls on NGOs, emphasizing that government, not these organizations, sets policy.
The Minister of Migration and Asylum, speaking on Tuesday morning (26/8) on Open TV, initially stated: “The ministry primarily cooperates with NGOs and with massive NGOs. I want to implement two categories of controls on NGOs. The first is primarily administrative. That is, at this moment, money that the ministry gives, beyond the regular checks we do before disbursing funds, we will conduct more targeted audits. The key point that interests us is that NGOs cannot dictate policy. Migration policy in the country is set by the government, and the government decides that at this moment we want to both reduce flows and increase returns.”
He continued saying that: “NGOs that have every right to operate according to their purpose can also participate in ministry programs. If they want to chart a policy that tells you they want to make Greece a country of open borders and talk with the networks that bring migrants in the name of everything being open, these NGOs will be audited.”
Referring to the reasons for increased controls, he said: “I see funds being circulated, I want to see their purposefulness – it’s not enough for someone to come and tell me what they did.”
He added: “I don’t want to demonize” and explained that “there are NGOs that are our key partners. There are others that we see, and we want them to justify in a clearer way the money they receive – money from Greek and European taxpayers – how it is utilized.” Thanos Plevris added: “What strikes me is that I suddenly see an announcement from SYRIZA because there will be an administrative audit, announcements from a series of NGOs because they will be audited.”
The new bill
The Minister of Migration and Asylum reminded that tomorrow the bill on illegal migration comes to Parliament committees and will be voted on next week. As he said: “The basic elements of the bill we need to know are that illegal stay in the country is criminalized. That is, when someone’s asylum is rejected, we don’t just have administrative deportation. We will have a criminal offense with imprisonment up to five years, where the violator will have the choice to either serve a prison sentence or return voluntarily.”
He emphasized that: “Our goal is to have asylum only for those who are entitled to it and returns for everyone else, so that the country fully controls the flows,” giving emphasis to the legislative initiative and effectiveness of the Migration Ministry’s actions.
Criticism of Tsipras and SYRIZA
Thanos Plevris also referred to Alexis Tsipras and SYRIZA, initially saying: “SYRIZA’s governance on criminal crime is connected with two basic ‘cuts.’ First, the Paraskevopoulos law where for the first time very serious crime came out with very preferential sentences with one-fifth of the sentence. That is, someone who had been sentenced to 15 and 20 years came out at 1/5 of the sentence instead of 3/5 that applied until then. And the second part was his criminal code that was passed a week before elections where sentences were reduced overall. Characteristically, I can tell you that rape went from 20 years and life imprisonment, which were basic sentences, to a maximum of 10 and 15 years, and for all crimes, murder ceased to be the sole life sentence.”
Finally, regarding the potential return of Alexis Tsipras and whether this worries the government, he said that “it doesn’t concern New Democracy. It will concern the conditions that exist in SYRIZA and obviously in PASOK because they are adjacent spaces, which we are monitoring. At this moment it appears that these parties are in a process of fermentation for a considerable period of time.”
