Greek MPs approved today an amendment to the law restricting the arrival of illegal migrants from North Africa, reported the newspaper "Kathimerini". The measure was adopted with 177 votes "for" and 74 "against", BTA reported.
The amendment provides for the suspension of asylum applications from persons who arrive in Greece illegally by sea from North Africa. These individuals will be returned without registration to their country of origin or departure.
The migrants will be temporarily housed in detention centers, one of which is planned to be on the southern Greek island of Crete.
The ban comes amid a growing number of migrants arriving on the island of Crete and after talks with the Libyan government in Benghazi to stem the flow were called off this week, Reuters recalls. It marks a further tightening of Greece’s stance on migrants under the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, which has built a fence on its northern land borders and stepped up maritime patrols since coming to power in 2019.
Human rights groups accuse Greece of forcibly returning asylum seekers at its sea and land borders. This year, the European Union’s border agency Frontex said it was reviewing 12 cases of potential human rights violations by Greece. The government denies any wrongdoing.
Greece was on the frontline of a migration crisis in 2015-16, when hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa passed through its islands and mainland. The flows have since fallen dramatically. At the same time, there has been a surge in arrivals on the remote islands of Crete and Gavdos - those numbers have quadrupled to more than 7,000 so far this year - Sea arrivals to Greece overall fell by 5.5 percent to 17,000 in the first half of this year, UN data cited by Reuters showed.
Human rights groups and opposition parties have said the ban approved by parliament violates human rights.
“Seeking asylum is a human right, preventing people from doing so is both illegal and inhumane,“ Marta Russo, senior advocacy advisor at the aid group "International Rescue Committee" (IRC), told Reuters.
Thousands of illegal migrants have been rescued by the Greek coastguard off Crete in recent days. Hundreds of them, including children, have been temporarily housed at an exhibition centre in Agia, western Crete, amid high summer temperatures.