The pope is currently on a tour of the region to highlight the plight of refugees trying to make their way to Europe, echoing a similar 2016 visit. The prime minister met with that the pontiff earlier in the day and stated that the latter would see how much the situation with migrants had improved during his upcoming visit.
"It has changed dramatically. We made a great effort to create decent facilities for the people on our islands," Mitsotakis said as quoted by his office, adding that the pope would see a building that, despite being temporary, meets the sanitation standards.
Greece is building closed-off migrant shelters across five islands in the Aegean Sea. According to human rights activists, these facilities resemble prisons as people are put behind high fences and barbed wire. Thirty-six human rights groups are planning to tell Pope Francis about the condition of the refugees, the alleged refusal of the Greek authorities to consider their asylum claims, as well as the issues at the borders of Greece and the European Union.