Facing demographic crisis, EU needs legal migration: Home affairs commissioner

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - Facing a major demographic crisis, the European Union needs legal migration to maintain its economy, said the EU home affairs commissioner on Monday.

Speaking with Greek Migration Minister Dimitris Kairidis at a discussion in Athens of how Europe should solve the challenge of migration, Ylva Johansson said that some 3.5 million legal migrants have moved to EU countries and were successfully integrated.

However, she added, some 300,000 irregular migrants have also entered the union, and more needs to the done to deal with this.

Kairidis, for his part, voiced agreement with Johansson, saying: “Our societies, our labor markets are understaffed. Thus, legal immigration is needed.”

Europe needs to fight illegal migrant trafficking which risks lives on a daily basis, he said, but it also needs to encourage the legal migration that its economies need.

Also speaking at the event, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reiterated that Greece’s migration policy is “strict but fair.”

“The flows of illegal arrivals were much lower than both the central Mediterranean corridor and the Western Balkans corridor, while in recent months we have seen a further reduction in flows, thanks also to the better cooperation we have achieved with Türkiye,” he said, underlining Athens’ role within the union in combatting irregular migration and citing Athens’ warming ties with Ankara.