Main opposition PASOK-Movement for Change President Nikos Androulakis on Friday said the government "should stop playing dangerous games with an issue that concerns Crete and all of Greece", in comments regarding the amendment suspending the submission of asylum applications for those arriving by boat from North Africa.
"PASOK's position is the immediate evaluation of asylum applications, their rejection and the repatriation of the migrants to their countries of origin," he said, while pointing out that the migration minister's statements had shown that the overwhelming majority of the new arrivals were migrants from Egypt, not refugees.
In this way, he added, the minister had also shown that his amendment was "dangerous and a communications gimmick, because suspending the examination of asylum is a deterrent for refugees."
"Here, however, we are talking about migrants, where a delay in examining their asylum applications also delays their repatriation to their countries, with which Greece has bilateral agreements - such as Egypt and Bangladesh," Androulakis added.
PASOK's leader also met with the leadership of the local authority staff union federation POE-OTA and discussed issues affecting workes in local authorities.