Greece denies report on migrant resettlement deal with the US
Athens: Greece has denied a report that it had reached a migrant resettlement deal with the United States.
CBS News reported that the U.S. was planning to refer some migrants in Latin America for resettlement in a bid to discourage them from traveling to the U.S. border with Mexico.
According to the report, the scheme would involve Greece and Italy welcoming a small number of migrants processed at immigration offices that the U.S. administration set up last year in four Latin America countries to screen migrants who hope to reach the U.S.
“The CBS report is untrue. There is neither an agreement nor a request from the U.S. to resettle legal immigrants in Greece,” Migration Minister Dimitris Kairidis wrote on social media platform X.
Kairidis said that he was unpleasantly surprised by the report, telling local Skai radio that it was “suspicious” coming just days before voters in Greece and other countries in the European Union elect a new European Parliament.
“There is no such deal,” U.S. ambassador to Greece George Tsunis told Kathimerini newspaper, without giving any details.
Greece has been on the front lines of Europe’s migration crisis since 2015, when hundreds of thousands of people from Syria and elsewhere began entering the EU hoping to claim asylum. Migrant flows have dropped since then, but illegal immigration remains a fertile issue, especially for right-wing parties, to exploit to attract votes.
Human rights organizations and the European Parliament have accused the Greek government of illegal “pushbacks” — forcing back migrants who have made it into Greek territory, which the government denies.
Earlier this year, Italy struck a deal with Albania to build processing centres for migrants that it will send across the Adriatic sea to the Balkan country.
President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order to curb migration along the U.S. southern border with Mexico as early as Tuesday, according to four people familiar with the issue.
