Avramopoulos: 6,000 individuals relocated from Greece, Italy

A total of 6,000 individuals have been relocated from Greece and Italy to other countries of the European Union in recent months, the bloc’s Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos has said.

“Three months ago I was very disappointed with the poor results. However, the resettlement process has lately shown progress: 6,000 people have been resettled from Greece and Italy to other EU states,” Avramopoulos told Italy’s Il Messaggero newspaper Wednesday.

“If we keep this pace, gained over the past few months, we will be able to say soon that this mechanism works,” the Greek official said.

The program, devised last year, was intended to relocate 160,000 from Greece and Italy to other European countries over two years. Only refugees – specifically those from Syria, Iraq and Eritrea – are considered for the scheme. Migrants and failed asylum seekers are not relocated but repatriated to their countries of origin.