Speaking to state broadcaster ERT, Mr Plevris said the proposal envisages two types of facilities. One, he said, would be ‘return centres under a regime of complete security’ — facilities he described as controlled by the European Union with African states participating ‘as compensation’. The other, he added, would be located in countries he characterised as ‘not safe, such as Libya’, where, he said, centres would be used to hold migrants.
‘If these centres are outside the European continent, they act as a deterrent,’ Mr Plevris said. He also offered a caveat about the legal and institutional form of the scheme: at one point he described the plan as operating ‘under the auspices of the European Union’, and later said it would be carried out by member states, with Germany ‘taking a serious initiative’ and Greece having ‘officially expressed interest’.
On arrivals, the minister cited government figures to argue the tougher stance has had an effect. He said the suspension of asylum and other measures enacted this year had coincided with a fall in crossings during August, September, October and the first half of November. ‘Last year we had around 23,000 arrivals and this year around 12,000,’ he said, adding that arrivals were now ‘18% down’ year on year and that periods of cooperation with Turkey and changes on routes from Libya had contributed to the reduction.
Mr Plevris described returns as ‘our big priority at the moment’, putting the current estimated annual returns at ‘5–6 thousand’ and saying that number must be increased so that, together with fewer arrivals, the net number of people remaining in Greece falls.
The minister’s comments set out a hardening in policy language and an explicit appetite for offshore arrangements to limit arrivals and accelerate returns. He framed the centres primarily as deterrence tools and as part of a broader effort to increase removals.
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