Former MP Odysseas Voudouris has been appointed as a General Secretary at the Ministry of Interior tasked with managing the refugee crisis. The appointment of Mr. Voudouris was formalized on Friday, after being approved by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Minister of Interior Panagiotis Kouroumplis.
Mr. Voudouris, who had previously been elected as an MP with PASOK and the Democratic Left, has worked with SYRIZA in the past three years, but failed to be elected in the 2015 elections. The newly-appointed General Secretary had previously acted as President of the Greek chapter of the Doctors Without Borders (1996-2001) and Vice President of the international Médecins Sans Frontières (1998-99).
As a surgeon, Mr. Voudouris participated in various humanitarian missions in combat zones, such as El Salvador (1989), Cambodia (1990), Mali (1990), Rwanda (1994), Serbia (1999), Palestine (2000, 2001 and 2002), Afghanistan (2004), Pakistan (2005) and Haiti (2010).
