Following the reactivation of the Dublin Regulation, the European Union (EU) will be returning a number of migrants seeking asylum to Greece.
According to the agreed regulations, to be classified as refugees, people fleeing their country of origin must file for asylum in the first member state of the EU bloc they enter.
Those who have been accepted into a country and then travel to a different nation-member of the EU should be returned to their first port of call and register there, prior to attempting entry to another destination.
That part of the Dublin Regulation was put on hold for Greece in 2011.
“We are going to implement the Dublin agreement symbolically, which means that the number [being returned] will be very small, a few dozen people over the next few months,” Greek Migration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas told the press on Tuesday, explaining that only a fraction of that number of refugees would end up staying in Greece permanently.
“Only a few migrants would be sent back to Greece from other member-states now that the decision has been taken to reactivate the Dublin Regulation.
“The situation on the islands is still difficult but it is under control on the mainland. We are starting the process of assimilation, which is difficult but we will succeed.”