Migrant arrivals in Greece dropped 80 percent in 2020

Greece’s Migration Ministry has reported a substantial dropping of migrant flow in 2020. The number of refugees arriving in Greece dropped 80 percent, an annual report by the Ministry says, Ahval has learned.

Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis has presented on Tuesday the 25-page annual report on migration. It includes data collected by all the agencies involved in the migration aspect, including refugee reception centres and the asylum service.

The fresh data shows that arrivals fell 87 percent in the Greek islands and 62 percent in Greece’s northeastern border region of Evros.

During 2020, the national asylum service issued some 106,000 decisions last year, of which 33 percent concerned refugee status approvals. Even though undecided asylum cases were reduced by 43 percent in 2020, some 80,000 decisions are still pending, the minister said.

Commenting on the new migrant report, the ministry aims to clear its backlog by the end of 2021.