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THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) – Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has pledged to “break and destroy” the human trafficking networks that smuggle migrants across the Turkish border.
Mitsotakis, at a press conference on Sunday after his speech on Saturday at the Thessaloniki International Fair, also said, in response to a question from the Associated Press, that he does not anticipate a new wave of Afghan refugees. .
“Our goal is to stop any wave long before it reaches our borders. In this, our interests and those of Turkey are aligned, ”he said.
Mitsotakis said Greece has adopted an active border protection strategy and that migrant flows have “significantly decreased” in 2021 compared to last year, while becoming more efficient at retrieving drifting migrants at sea. .
Greece has denied claims by Turkey and non-governmental organizations that it is pushing back migrants, putting lives at risk, especially of those crossing the sea from the Turkish coast.
In the spring of 2020, Greece faced an attempt by Turkey to let tens of thousands of migrants cross the land border between the two countries. Since then he has completed a fence along the small section of the border not formed by the river Evros (Méric).
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Demetris Nellas contributed to this report from Athens.
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Read AP’s coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
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