A total of two thousand refugees have already left the hosting facilities in the first week since the implementation of the decision, Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi said in an interview with MEGA TV on Tuesday.
The minister estimated that all those that should leave will leave by the end of July. "We cannot offer shelter and pension eternally to those that have received international protection. They have access to a programme called Helios," he said.
Regarding the migrants that are currently staying at Victoria square in Athens, Mitarachi explained that they are approximately 60 people that have received asylum and come from the Moria hotspot.
Mitarachi said that they should have applied for the Helios programme and tried to find a place to live. It was their own choice to buy a ticket and go to Victoria square because someone told them to go there. So, yesterday night the head of the first reception agency went there and we offered temporary shelter to all adding that they have been given the opportunity to be transferred to Eleonas hosting facility".
In parallel, Mitarachi referred to the "instrumentalisation of 20 people's ordeal to turn it into a political issue" adding that "yesterday many groups went to the square and pressed them to stay where they were."