



Starting in March, refugees in Greece will be getting money for food instead of free meals, said Deputy Migration Minister Yiannis Mouzalas on Monday.

Mouzalas spoke on SKAI television about the refugee issue and particularly about the new program on feeding the refugees that will be implemented in March.

The aid program is limited to the refugee population located in mainland Greece and not those who are accommodated in hospitality camps on the Aegean islands, the deputy minister said. He also explained that if the refugees currently on the islands move to the mainland, the European Union-Turkey refugee relocation deal might be put at risk.

Regarding the amount of the aid, Mouzalas said that every month each refugee family would receive the minimum guaranteed income a Greek family would get minus one euro, for symbolic reasons.

The deputy minister said there are 50,000 registered refugees and migrants that would stay in Greece for a long period of time. He also said that more hospitality structures are under construction to decongest the existing overcrowded facilities.

Regarding the former Athens airport at Elliniko which has become a makeshift camp accommodating about 5,000 migrants, Mouzalas said they will be removed as soon as new hospitality structures are finished.

Over 100 migrant arrivals recorded on Greek islands in 24 hours

A total of 112 migrants and refugees landed on Greek shores in the first 24 hours of the new year, with 46 arriving on the eastern Aegean island of Chios and another 66 on Samos.

According to the ANA-MPA news agency, 25 Syrians, 12 Algerians, four Nigerians, two Palestinians and one each from Iraq, Cameroon and Yemen, landed on the shores of Chios between Sunday and Monday morning.

On Samos, the arrivals were reported as being 46 Syrian nationals, 12 Iraqis, five Afghans, and one each from Tunisia, Bangladesh and the Dominican Republic.



