© Alkis Konstantinidis / ReutersAn Afghan migrant shouts at a police officer, Athens, Greece.
As the European Commission pressures Athens to re-implement the Dublin Regulation - stipulating that refugees can be returned to the first EU state they arrived in - the Greek migration minister told Spiegel his country is not in a position to do so. The agreement was put on hold for Greece back in 2011 over problems in the country's asylum system.
"Greece is already shouldering a heavy burden," Ioannis Mouzalas, the migration minister, said.
"We accommodate 60,000 refugees... and it would be a mistake to make Greece's burden heavier by the revival of the Dublin agreement," he said, also adding that Germany, the primary destination for most refugees, "wants countries where refugees arrive first to bear a large portion of the burden."
Under the Dublin Regulation, the European state where the asylum-seeker first arrives in the EU is responsible for examining an asylum claim. Refugees are fingerprinted in their first country of arrival to ensure irrefutable evidence of their entry.
Comment: More on Kiriakou's revelations: