As numbers continue to surge in the Mediterranean, Greece introduces harsh legislation to oust rejected asylum seekers and deter potential arrivals.
Rejected asylum seekers will be given a 14-day grace period to leave; should they fail, they will now be facing two to five years in prison.
The legislation is part of the government’s continued efforts to deter and apprehend illegal migrants pouring into the country from North Africa.
Criminalization of Illegal Migration
The center-left government under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been desperate to stop the massive migration wave besieging the state. The most major change to disincentivize migrants was the suspension of processing asylum applications for migrants arriving by sea from Africa for three months.
Other policies involved a 6-month-long suspension sentence for rejected asylum seekers who fail to leave, continued cooperation with North African states – especially Libya – and ending legalization programs.
New measures have toughened these policies, adding jail time, fines, and even orders to wear ankle tags. There are also more deterrence policies: arrivals with no documentation will be detained for 24 months instead of the original 18, and those unable to legalize their status will be prohibited from doing so after seven years. Any illegal entry carries a fine of €10,000; if it’s a reentry, the fine rises to €30,000.
“We are accountable to Greek citizens, and Greek citizens want to be protected,” migration minister Thanos Plevris said before the vote. “The message is clear [for migrants]: if your asylum request is rejected, you have two choices. Either you go to jail or return to your homeland. The Greek state does not accept you … You are not welcome.”
Reception
No other EU state has introduced measures so focused on repression. In an unprecedented occurrence, Greek judges criticized the legislative branch’s approach.
Parliamentary opposition is also skeptical of the legislation due to its ‘inhumanity,’ even calling it a “law of lawlessness and chaos” and “antisocial” as it “introduces institutional racism.”
Others, like Dimitris Kairidis, the previous migration and asylum minister who stepped down in 2024, highlighted the need for legal migrants at a time of acute labor shortages. His policies followed in this direction as well, legalizing 30,000 unregistered migrant laborers in agriculture, construction, and tourism. There is also a demographic issue, easily helped by legalizing migrants; the education ministry was forced to close 750 schools just last week due to the lack of pupils.
“It’s so contradictory that this should be passed when Greece’s population is in such freefall and when migrants offer the solution to labor shortages,” the director of the Greek Council for Refugees, Lefteris Papagiannakis, argues. “Mitsotakis has managed to hold the center ground. With this openly racist law, he is clearly trying to enlarge his voter pool by appealing to the far right.”
The UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations warned this could punish refugees who are entitled to protection, as many have been rejected on the grounds of the “third safe country” concept, urging the government to differentiate between illegal migrants and refugees more clearly.
Rising Numbers of Incoming Migrants
In June, discussing the Pact on Migration and Asylum, Ursula von der Leyen told the European Commission that the Eastern and Central Mediterranean migratory routes have been on the rise, with “a 173% increase of arrivals to Greece from Eastern Libya.”
According to the Mixed Migration Center, in the second quarter of 2025 (April to June), 10,048 arrivals reached Greece, with 7,135 in Crete alone (as of 29th June). The first half of 2025 brought an increase of around 350% in the total number of arrivals compared to the same period in 2024.
Amid such stringent pressure on the Greek asylum and border authorities, tensions with Libya are also on the rise, which, according to von der Leyen, accounts for 97% of departures to Greece. This prompted government plans to deploy navy ships to fight off smugglers in the North African country.
Some analysts have suggested that despite Greece’s alleged aggressive and illegal pushbacks, Libya has been weaponizing migration against Greece amid continuing contestation of their exclusive economic zones in the Mediterranean Sea by Türkiye and its deal to share the maritime area with Libya.
The deal has been condemned by the EU and Greece alike, calling it illegal and an attempt to exploit Crete’s waters for energy sources while ignoring its existence. The Türkiye-Libya deal ignores the International Sea Law, which describes Crete’s exclusive economic zone privileges – laws, which Ankara never ratified.
