Conservative government under the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis he wants, namely, to introduce stricter measures that would facilitate the deportation of people who do not have the right to asylum in Greece.
The basic idea behind the law of Migration Minister Thanos Plevris is deterrence. Anyone who illegally arrives in Greece he will end up in prison. And anyone who resides in Greece illegally cannot have any hope of ever obtaining legal status. Until now, irregular migrants have at least had the opportunity to apply for a residence permit after at least seven years of residence and work in Greece, or to obtain it under special circumstances, he writes. Deutsche says.
The new measures aim to deter people fleeing to Europe via the Mediterranean from disembarking in Greece. In June and July, refugees arriving on the popular tourist island of Crete made headlines.
Most of them boarded ships in Libya. But they were not welcome on Crete, nor on the nearby island of Gavdos.
"Greece is not a friendly country for you"
Already at the beginning of the discussion in the parliament, Minister Plevris wanted to express his position unequivocally and clearly, so he addressed a fictitious refugee who wants to reach Europe via Libya.
"Those who told you that Greece is a friendly country deceived you," he said. The minister, who started his political career as a right-wing radical in the Christian Orthodox nationalist party LAOS, wanted to show that no one is stricter towards "illegals" than he is.
The most important new provision in his law: five years in prison for asylum seekers whose claims are rejected in the second instance, that is, after an appeal.
Plevris emphasized that he was proud of the new procedure, and he described the details of that procedure almost with relish: "If your request is denied, an electronic nanotag will be used. You will have to leave the country because you are now illegal. But, since the new guidelines require it, I will give you some time until you leave the country. During that time, I will follow you. After I put you under surveillance, I will send you back to where you came from. And when that moment comes, you can choose: or you go to prison for five years without parole options or you're going back."
Plevris is convinced that the strictness of the law will act as a deterrent to migrants. As a successful example, he cited the - very controversial - temporary suspension of the right to asylum in July this year for every refugee who arrived in Crete from Tobruk.
Since then, much fewer arrivals have been registered on the island. In August, there were only 689, compared to 3.624 in July. It remains unclear whether this reduction was due to the strictness of Pleuris or the strong winds during August that made the Mediterranean Sea dangerous to cross.
Criticisms of the new law
In fact, all bodies and organizations directly or indirectly involved in migration issues have expressed reservations and objections to Plevris's bill. Representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Council of Europe, as well as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the National Council for Human Rights, spoke.
Amnesty International (AI), the Greek Refugee Council, the Greek Bar Association and even the Greek Ombudsman opposed it. The minister, however, ignored all the objections of experts and the opposition of human rights defenders.
"These institutions do not make laws, but the government and parliament," he said, referring to the majority of Greeks who, according to polls, want stricter policies. Indeed, in a survey conducted on July 25 by the Greek Institute for Public Opinion Research (GPO) for the Parapolitika.gr portal, almost 80 percent of respondents supported the arrest and deportation of migrants who enter Greece illegally.
Right-wing extremists are also dissatisfied with this
In the debate in the parliament, the Greek minister for migration primarily tried to win a few additional political points among the right-wing opposition parties with his rhetoric. On the one hand, he said, there are the rights of a person whose request for asylum has been rejected.
And on the other hand, there are the rights of Greek citizens who want to protect their homeland and fight against illegal immigration. "On that scale, the pendulum tilts in favor of the Greeks, whether you like it or not," he thundered, addressing those in parliament who insisted on respecting human rights.
But despite such rhetoric, Plevris failed to win the support of opposition parties more right-leaning than the conservative New Democracy. His determination to make life difficult for the refugees was not enough for them.
"Xenophobic demagoguery"
All opposition parties to the left of New Democracy also voted against the law. The social democratic PASOK accused Plevris of "extreme xenophobic demagoguery". The left-wing Syriza accused the government of accepting the role of "prisoner" for Greece, instead of promoting collective solutions, legal and safe transit routes and a common asylum screening system in Europe.
The Communist Party called it an "inhumane, racist law." And they all argued that the bill would not make it easier to legitimately deport people who are not eligible for asylum. That, as they said, requires diplomacy and multiple agreements with the countries of origin and the so-called "safe" third countries.
According to the Greek Council for Refugees, the announced deportations of migrants are not easy to implement, especially not so quickly as to reduce the pressure on prisons. Therefore, it is very likely that the number of detainees will soon increase sharply. However, Greek prisons are already hopelessly overcrowded, and the new law will make the situation even more catastrophic.
In 2024, a total of 5.865 foreign citizens were returned from Greece to other countries: 38 percent of them were Georgians, 35 percent Albanians, 6,6 percent Pakistanis, and 2,1 percent from Bangladesh.
The Greek public did not pay much attention to the new anti-migration law. Almost no Greek newspaper found a place for the topic on the front page the day after its adoption by the parliament.
