site.btaInterior Minister Radev:We Highly Commend Greece's Efforts to Counter Migration

Interior Minister Radev: We Highly Commend Greece's Efforts to Counter Migration

Athens, January 19 (BTA) - During a working visit to Greece on Friday, Interior Minister Valentin Radev met with Greek Minister for Immigration Policy Ioannis Mouzalas and EU Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos, his ministry reported.

The Bulgarian Interior Minister visited the Moria detention centre on Lesbos Island, where he was familiarized with the conditions and problems at the centre. It accommodates 5,190 persons, of whom 166 are underage.

Radev said that Greece has done a lot to improve the conditions at migrant centres and assured his hosts that he will share their experience during the presidency of the EU Council with other countries that bear the brunt of migration.

The sides noted that a readmission agreement between EU and Turkey is bearing fruit and EU aid should be extended.

"In the field of home affairs, the Bulgarian EU Presidency aims to achieve more efficient management of migration and asylum processes and a balance between responsibility and solidarity," said Minister Radev.

Reforms in the field of asylum will top the agenda of an upcoming informal EU Home Affairs Council on January 25, said Radev.

On the Bulgarian delegation were Commissioner Nikolai Nikolov, head of the Migration Directorate and Anzhelina Toteva, Radev's chef de cabinet.