Migrant asylum registration moving at rate of 650 daily

A scheme for registering migrants who want to apply for asylum in Greece, which was launched early last month, has been progressing steadily with 15,500 migrants registered so far, Asylum Service officials have said.

Officials are registering around 650 migrants per day in Athens and Thessaloniki, close to the daily target of 700, Maria Stavropoulou, the head of Greece’s Asylum Service, told Kathimerini. In the coming weeks, registration is to begin in camps in other parts of the country too. Of the 15,500 registered so far, 680 are unaccompanied minors. 

All migrants who arrived in Greece between January 1, 2015, and March 20 of this year are eligible to apply for asylum. Those who arrived after March 20, when the European Union signed a deal with Ankara for the return of migrants to Turkey, do not have the right to apply. Many migrants, especially Syrians, have had their appeals against returning to Turkey upheld by Greek tribunals.