Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-04-08

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] FM Kotzias announces April meetings on migration with Balkan countries

[02] Greece returns 97 irregular migrants to Turkey

[01] FM Kotzias announces April meetings on migration with Balkan countries

Speaking during a briefing of the press, Kotzias said the April 14 meeting concerns a trilateral conference between the police authorities of Greece, Albania and Italy, while the second one is a quadripartite meeting of foreign and interior ministers of Greece, FYROM, Bulgaria and Albania.

In the meeting of foreign ministers, Greece will propose, among others, holding a wider meeting with countries such as Serbia, Austria, Slovakia and Croatia to discuss trans-border cooperation and security and the refugee issue in general, possibly in May or early June.

Kotzias also informed the press that he will meet with United Nations mediator Matthew Nimetz in the coming days to discuss Greece's initiatives on FYROM's name issue.

Asked about NATO's operation in the Aegean, the minister said that, "because of Turkey, the practice followed does not correspond to the original planning and to what the NATO staff wanted".

[02] Greece returns 97 irregular migrants to Turkey

The nationalities were as follows: 71 Pakistanis, 20 Bangladeshis, 3 Algerians, 2 Iranians and one Moroccan. On Monday, Greece is expected to readmit another 72 migrants.

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