Η παρέμβασή μου σε διαδικτυακό διεθνές πάνελ του World Bank Group, στο οποίο βουλευτές από Ευρω-μεσογειακές χώρες συζητάμε για το ρόλο μας στην επίλυση του μεταναστευτικού

First of all I would like to thank the hosts, the Parliamentary Network and the World Bank Group, for giving me the opportunity to participate in this conference, to hear your opinions and share with you my thoughts and experiences on the crucial topic of migration and refugee crisis.

My short intervention will be based on the 2 first objectives of the conference, as set forth in the introductory letter:

1. the impact of displacement on destination countries
2. the response of national authorities to address the crisis and mitigate its impact on the local population.

I will address those 2 topics from the Greek perspective.

1. The impact of displacement on Greece

As a Greek MP, allow me to begin by introducing you to the current situation at the Greek boarders, the islands but also mainland of Greece, following the tremendous increase in the migrants’ and refugees’ flows during 2015.

Greece, due to its geography, is one of the main gatekeepers to Europe and an ideal entry point for migrants and refugees in search of a better life in the EU. And I say that for 2 main reasons:

– Greece is extremely close to both the Middle East and North Africa.

– Greece has a, very long and difficult to guard, coastline.

The numbers are quite remarkable. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated that more than half a million refugees and migrants have entered the sea boarders of our country in 2015. That is a 1765% increase over last year. Only July’s flow -54,000 people- exceeded the flow for the whole of the year 2014. There were days recently when 5000 and 7000 migrants arrived to one Greek island per day.

Now moving on to the concrete impact of this massive and unprecedented displacement: It is important to bear in mind that Greece is a country that is in the midst of a severe financial crisis. We are heading to the 7^th year of recession. So the social and economic pressure of this displacement is straining a country already severely burdened.

I would say there are 2 areas of direct impact of the influx of migrants and refugees AND 2 areas of potential or indirect impact. First, the 2 areas of direct impact:

• Impact on the public administration: problems regarding services, supplies, infrastructures, given that we are talking about managing an unprecedented flow of people.
• Impact on tourism. Tourism constitutes the main industry – and significant source of income – for the Aegean islands, which happen to be the islands where refugees arrive after crossing the sea between Turkey and Greece. As a result, there has been an important effect on tourism, shrinking of the touristic season, cancellation of overnight stays, loss of turnover and lower expenditure per capita, fewer reservations for 2015 and 2016, cancellation of conferences and less dockings of cruise boats in the islands’ ports, cancellation of direct flights from abroad. Only for one island, the island of Kos, a loss of 18 million Euros is estimated to have taken place during the summer of 2015.

Indirect impact:

• This unprecented flow of people could revive the anti-migrant sentiment and violenceseen in Greece in 2012, when the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party was elected for the first time to Parliament.
• There is also a security angle to consider. In the aftermath of the terrible terrorist attacks that took place 2 weeks ago in Paris, it was revealed that 2 of the terrorists had taken advantage of the influx in migrants and had entered the EU through Greece’s islands. Of course, one should be careful to separate the two issues: the refugee crisis and terrorism, but the fact of the matter is that terrorists may well take advantage of the situation and of the incoming flow of people in order to enter the EU more easily.

1. The response of Greek national authorities to address the crisis and mitigate its impact on the local population

The newly elected Greek government was faced with a new, huge set of challenges. We in opposition claim that the current Government did its share in attracting migrants to come through the Greek borders rather than the Italian borders for instance and that there was a significant delay in its reaction to the problem. But we should focus on the result and the current situation which is this tremendous increase of incoming flow of migrants and which is very difficult to manage.

The Government has tried to align the cost guard, the police and the municipalities, and after several months in power, things started to get somewhat better in terms of managing this influx. But none of this would have been possible without the most significant assistance of local and foreign/international NGOs, the UN and other organization that have crews on the spot, on the Greek islands, and help tremendously in the management of the influx and in providing basic humanitarian assistance, like water bottles, dry food, sleeping bags and hygiene kits. The basic problems have not yet been solved, namely accommodation for the extremely large number of those arriving to Greece.

In conclusion, I think that there are 2 things that need to be done immediately:

• To have the said “hot spots”, that is the control points at the Turkish shore, not on the Greek islands. Like that only those entitled to enter the EU either because they are entitled to asylum or because they have the required documentation, will be able to cross the sea and reach Greece. And I say that because so many people have lost their lives while trying to cross illegally.
• For all countries in the region to commit that they will not build fences along their borders. And I say that because if a fence is built say by Germany, then refugees and immigrants will be trapped in Greece and Italy. And fences have started being built, take for instance FYROM. The result is that up until recently we had some 5000 refugees at the Greek border with FYROM in a desperate situation.

Thank you very much for your attention.