Meeting of Permanent Representative Alexis Alexandris with the Director General of IOM, Mr. Lacy Swing (17.11.2015)

The Permanent Representative, Ambassador Alexis Alexandris, had a meeting with the Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Mr William Lacy Swing. During this meeting they exchanged views on the current refugee and migration crisis and on ways to deal with it, as well as on the upcoming IOM Council. The Greek PR briefed Mr Swing on the migration response measures taken by the Greek government in order to deal with the unprecedented refugee and migratory flows. Mr Swing expressed his tremendous respect for the efforts of the Hellenic Coast Guard in saving tens of  thousands of lives at sea and underlined the excellent working relations between the IOM and the Greek authorities. Mr Alexandris also thanked Mr Swing personally for his leadership and important role in highlighting the international character and the human dimension of migration. Finally, Mr Alexandris expressed the readiness of Greece to continue its fruitful cooperation with IOM in the context of migration management in the challenging environment of our times where the preservation of core humanitarian values and principles is becoming more and more essential.