Greece Suspends Migrant Asylum Applications From Africa
Source: Balkan Insight
The Greek parliament on Friday voted to stop processing asylum applications from migrants arriving by sea from Africa for three months.
“[Prime Minister] Kyriakos Mitsotakis and this government believe that we have borders, we have territory, and we will protect it,” the Minister of Migration and Asylum, Thanos Plevris, said.
Greece is a major entry point for people fleeing Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Over 60,000 arrivals were recorded in Greece last year, according to UN figures, most by sea, well up on the 48,000 recorded in 2023.
Out of 293 MPs, 177 MPs from the governing New Democracy party, Elliniki Lysi and several independents voted for the ban. MPs for SYRIZA, the Communist Party, Pleusi Eleftherias and the New Left voted against.
The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, expressed concern
“The new provision goes against EU and international law and is a flagrant violation of human rights,” Lefteris Papagiannakis, president of the Greek League of Human Rights, told BIRN. “As the amendment is worded, and with the experience we have, we fear there will be pushbacks,” he said.
After the Greek government in March 2020 suspended asylum claims. Ylva Johansson, European Commissioner for Home Affairs, intervened to ensure that people could still apply for asylum in Greece
“We are concerned about how the situation will develop in the next three months concerning access to asylum. Three months is the initial period; we do not know if the government will extend it,” Papagiannakis added.
Plevris’s statements “about an invasion from Africa” on SKAI TV on July 10 show that “the far right and racism are strengthening in Greece,” Papagiannakis added.
Besides the suspension of asylum applications, the Greek government plans to create a closed detention facility in Crete; it is not yet known where it would be placed.
Plevris, along with the EU’s Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, and officials from Italy and Malta, had visited Libya on July 8 to discuss stemming migration flows. But the mission failed after rival authorities in eastern Libya described the delegation as unwelcome.
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