Greek migration minister Ioannis Mouzalas has revealed that a Belgian minister suggested Greece should “push” refugee boats “back into the sea” to help solve the migration crisis on the country’s shores during a meeting in Amsterdam.
Mouzalas told Newsnight that the minister said, “Just push [refugees] back into the sea. The Belgian said ‘go against the law. I do not care if it’s illegal. Just push them back’,” Mouzalas told the British channel.Migration minister Mouzalas’ claim — that he was told to push back refugee boats — was reiterated by Greek broadcaster, SKAI TV, to whom he said:
“An unbelievable minister proposed setting up a camp for 400,000 refugees in Athens and offered the possibility of leaving the Schengen zone and pushing [refugees] back into the sea.”
More than a million refugees and migrants arrived in Europe in 2015, the majority of them via Turkey to Greece, where they continued their journey north through the Schengen zone, to Germany.
