Avramopoulos meets PM, officials in Athens for talks on migration crisis
As a migration and refugee crisis grows, European Immigration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos was in Athens on Friday for talks with government officials about the problem.
Avramopoulos, who is aligned with conservative New Democracy, met with ND's interim leader Evangelos Meimarakis and expressed his support for the latter ahead of Sunday's general elections but also expressed his readiness to work with whichever government emerges from the polls.
Avramopoulos also met with caretaker Prime Minister Vassiliki Thanou for talks on the crisis as officials seek to deal with a continuing influx of refugees and migrants, chiefly via Greece's sea border with Turkey. Thanou said the influx via the eastern Aegean into Greece was currently "under control" but insisted that the migration crisis is a European problem.
European interior and home affairs ministers are to meet on Tuesday in Brussels to discuss ways to deal with the crisis, which has led to several European Union member states tightening border controls. On Wednesday, EU leaders are to converge in Brussels for talks on the same issue.
