The Minister of National Defence Panos Kammenos, the Alternate Minister of National Defence Dimitris Vitsas, the Chief of HNDGS Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis, the Chief of HAGS Lieutenant General Vasileios Tellidis and the Coordinator of the Central Coordinating Body for the Management of the Migration Major General Konstantinos Floros visited the temporary residence centres for refugees – migrants on the islands of Leros, Chios, Lesvos.

The Minister of National Defence, while on Chios, made the following statement:

“Ten days after the engagement of the Armed Forces was announced, by decision of the Inter-ministerial Committee, we came here today with the Alternate Minister Mr. Vistas, the Chief of HNDGS Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis, the Chief of HAGS Lieutenant General Vasileios Tellidis, accompanied by the Ambassador of the European Union to Greece, European bodies, representatives of the UN High Commission for Refugees and reporters from Greek and foreign media.  

I would like to congratulate the Brigadier General and commander for the island, the Commander of the hotspot, the Deputy Commander, the Engineer, the Officers, the NCOs, the women and men of the Armed Forces because they responded to this big challenge that Greece set and the Ministry of National Defence undertook, always in cooperation with the Ministry for Citizen Protection and the Ministry of Migration Policy.

I would like to thank the Hellenic Police, the Hellenic Coast Guard as well as the local authorities in public. I owe a special mention to Mr. Deputy Regional Governor who has been helping from the very beginning, to the Mayor and the Municipal authorities of Chios, as well as to the people of Chios, to non-governmental organizations that are present here today and to every citizen who cooperated with the Armed Forces, with the coordinator of the project and we managed to prepare the hotspot of Chios.

As of today, as we had announced, there is a close cooperation with the “Smile of the Child” which is here today and a special room for children is being prepared. We are making a huge effort and I hope that over the next days we will be able to have a centre of registration with biometric identification data also for children of 0-12 years old who have not been undergoing any registration by the Eurodac system.

Greece fulfilled its obligations. In connection with the agreement with NATO about the reduction of the migration flows on the coast of Asia Minor, in a trilateral agreement that we signed with Germany and Turkey and all NATO member-states ratified, I believe that we have adopted a policy that will help to deal with the huge migration-refugees issue. This means that we will face this enormous problem by respecting the Geneva Convention, the rights of refugees, as well as the capabilities of Europe.

The Armed Forces were called on, under difficult circumstances, to prove that they are prepared not only for war time, but to offer social work at peace time as well. And Mr. Vitsas and I are proud to be political leaders in the Ministry of National Defence. We are all proud because all bodies, together, the Police, the Coast Guard, the non-governmental organizations, the European Union, the UN High Commission for Refugees, “The Smile of the Child”, the Hellenic Psychiatric Association worked together closely and managed to have this hotspot operate under the provided hygiene conditions, under good living conditions for the refugees.

This 24-hour hotspot is the gateway to the relocation centres of 72-hour stay, which are ready in Schisto and in Thessaloniki.

From now on, we will keep helping until the whole operation system of the hotspots takes a proper functional structure. The Armed Forces will ba present again whenever it is needed.

I thank you too, Greek and foreign reporters who have the possibility today to express the real image of Greece. I ask you to communicate this image as soon as possible.

“Playing games” against Greece is over. From now on, Turkey has to prove that it will respect the agreement that it signed and it will host the refugees, as well as the migrants who leave the coast of Asia Minor.”