The Greek authorities postponed to April the start of the implementation of the new Immigration Code, unlike what was expected to start on January 1 of this year.
The code was approved last year by the Greek Parliament and brings relief to legal procedures both in obtaining residence permits and in the sector of seasonal employment of migrants, unifying the legal basis for immigration with the countries of the European Union.
Meanwhile, for another law on irregular immigration, which was approved in mid-December last year by the Greek Parliament, the relevant circulars for the start of implementation have not yet been issued by the Greek Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Immigration.
The law enables in Greece the legalization of irregular migrants who have been living in this country continuously for three years and who have an offer from an employer.
This category of migrants is provided with three-year residence permits, ensuring access to social services.
This category of Albanian immigrants without regular residence documents includes those who entered Greece illegally, but also another category who entered as visitors or to work seasonally and could not renew their residence permit for various reasons.
The electronic application platforms for this category, which according to Greek statistics affects over 30 thousand Albanians, have not yet been opened, although the law should start implementation on January 1 of this year.
Associations of Albanian emigrants in Greece link the delays in the implementation of immigration laws with the low capacity of human resources in the Greek centers for handling the requests of emigrants, which continue to respond with considerable delay even to current applications for residence permits.
According to the most recent data of the Greek Ministry of Emigration, Albanian citizens constituted in December 2023 about 59.6% of foreigners with regular residence in a total number of about 278 thousand people.
This number of Albanian immigrants is significantly lower than two years ago when there were 435,000 Albanians in Greece, which constituted about 62.8% of foreigners with regular residence in Greece./VOA
