Interior Minister of Turkey Süleyman Soylu on Thursday hosted Greek migration minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos to discuss the migration crisis in the eastern Mediterranean, APA reports citing Daily Sabah.
Soylu and Koumoutsakos — the alternate minister for migration policy — discussed the migration policies between the two countries.
Koumoutsakos's visit came after a sharp rise in the number of migrant arrivals to Greece.
Soylu will also meet his German counterpart Horst Seehofer and EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos later in the day. French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner had planned to travel to Turkey on Thursday to meet with Soylu but canceled his trip after a security incident a police station in Paris.
Some 77,400 irregular migrants reached Europe by crossing Mediterranean this year, 45,600 of which arrived in Greece — more than Spain, Italy, Malta, and Greek Cypriot administration combined — the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday.