Greece warns of an “invasion” as it stops asylum on the Med route

In the center of the suffocating, cavernous hall, rows of men sit in silence without borrowing them but waiting.

Signs from an old tourist fair, supported behind them, urge visitors to “explore the beauty of nature” with illustrations of bays and beaches in Crete.

But those held at the former Aya exhibition center did not come to the Greek island as vacationers. They are migrants who risk traveling across the sea from Libya to the southern region of Europe and were then detained and refused the right to apply for asylum.

From Crete, they are now moving to closed facilities in the continent.

Everyone’s right to request protection or asylum is entered in the EU and international law and in the constitution of Greece itself. But undergoing earlier this month and criticized by human rights attorneys, the government has exceeded this principle for the next three months.

The new minister of migration Tanos Pleprise told the BBC that his country was facing a “emergency”. He warns of an “invasion” if Europe does not apply difficult measures and speaks to the need for strong deterrent.

“Anyone who comes will be detained and returned,” he stresses.

Now even the people who are running away from the war in Sudan are closed without a chance to explain their story.

In the old exhibition center, the migrants were warned to talk to us from the security. “They are in detention,” they told us.

Greece bakes in a heat wave and many men were in vests or stripped to the waist. There were several water cranes around the edges, but there were no suitable showers and only muttering blankets on the floor. Boxes with donated clothes and toys accumulated from the door remained unpacked by the security guards, cautious of provoking battles.

For two days we saw only a few hundred migrants in Aya – from countries, including Egypt, Bangladesh and Yemen, we heard, as well as Sudan.

There were 20 or more teenagers and two women sitting together from behind.

But when 900 people landed from Libya on a weekend earlier this month, the facility was stretched to the limit.

More than 7,000 migrants reached Crete between January and late June, more than three times the number in 2024.

Overall, the EU Border Agency has registered nearly 20,000 crossings in the Eastern Mediterranean during this period, with Libya-Critten’s corridor now being the main route.

Traffickers began to send people seriously to Crete after Italy signed a deeply controversial deal with Libya a few years ago, allowing migrants to be caught in the sea and push back, despite extensive evidence of human rights violations.

It was mid -July when the Athens government took its move.

“The road to Greece is closing,” Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitotakis told parliament, announcing that all migrants “enter illegally” would be arrested.

A few days later, Mustafa-20-year-old, who runs out of the Sudan-Bez war war.

From Ayia, he was transferred to a camp outside Athens, known as Amig far, rows of gray prefabricated huts in a dried lawn surrounded by high fences and security cameras.

“We live here as a prison,” Mustafa told me when I was able to contact the phone. “They don’t allow us to move. We have no clothes or shoes. Our situation is very bad.”

The lawyers who have visited Amygdaleza confirm his account, describing recent arrivals that walk barefoot on baking on hot soil and receive minimal information. Usually, Sudanese citizens will receive asylum in Europe.

In a series of voice and text messages, Mustafa told how he spent months in difficult conditions in Libya waiting for his chance to cross. He was then in the sea for two days with 38 people stuffed on a plastic boat that had to be rescued. “We were unable to reach (land) because of the waves.”

Having experienced this ordeal, now Greece is scared, he will try to return it.

“I left my country because of the war, I can’t go back,” Mustafa said. “I come from Sudan because there is a war in Sudan and I want protection. That’s why I came here.”

“We do not know now what our fate will be.”

The Greek Minister of Migration describes himself as a “hard” immigration.

“It is clear that a country cannot accept such pressure from migration, not react,” Tanos Pleprise defended the new government measures.

He claims that Crete received “one, two, three thousand people a day” from Libya when he entered, although he then scaled this back to “near to a thousand” in three days when he was challenged.

Plevris has no trouble denying the right to claim asylum, which suggests that Sudanese refugees can just stay in Libya.

“I want to be completely honest. We are trying to balance their rights and respect for the people in Greece,” the minister was firm. “Anyone who enters the Greek territory over the next three months knows that he violates the Greek law.”

The European Commission says this is a “consideration” of this move.

A spokesman told the BBC that the situation was “exception” as the jump in small arrival on a boat has “possible consequences for European security”.

Poland also stopped asylum applications at its eastern border in March, though with different exceptions. Greece itself did so before in 2020 during an increase in arrival from Turkey.

Some obligations of the European Convention on Human Rights may be canceled “in the time of war or other public emergency situation that threatens the life of the nation.”

Whether the current situation is such a serious threat to Poland or Greece is very contested.

“This article is about a war or a mass uprising,” says Dimitris Fourikis, a lawyer who works widely with migrants in Crete and sees an alarming trend throughout Europe.

He warns that the detention centers will also quickly fill, as “sending migrants back” is easy to say, but extremely difficult to do.

“I think this is a solution that is completely illegal. It’s a very big step, a very wrong step. And I think the best they can be to stop it immediately,” the lawyer says.

Increasing the arrival of small boats came just when the beaches and bars of Crete were filled for the summer, and the Minister of Migration says that the protection of the tourism industry is his priority.

“I have never seen any migrants,” admits Andreas Lugiakis, the owner of a restaurant in the beautiful village of Paleohora on the southern coast, which says that the boats reach mostly the tiny island of Gavdos.

However, even if they are arriving, it is bad for the business.

“We feel sad for these people, of course, but … people think this place is full of immigrants; no beaches, no place,” says Andreas. “We are just worried about our business and our families.”

Suspending asylum is part of a much broader repression of irregular migrants here. The minister plans to close anyone who fails to leave Greece when their asylum request is rejected and uses electronic observation labels.

He also promised a “drastic review” of benefits.

Claiming that “millions” in North Africa are ready to go to Europe, citing conversations in Libya, Pleprise suggests that other countries should be grateful for his determination.

“You need to know that if the countries on the EU border do not take difficult measures, then all this flow of migrants will be directed to your societies,” he warns. “Greece used to say it before, but then no one listened.”

Every night, when the sky above Crete becomes orange, the coast guards accompany a group of migrants to the harbor and to the night ferry to Athens.

When the number of arrivals climbed earlier this month, they struggled to find a place on board.

The Minister insists that the suspension of asylum rights is a temporary step, most likely only for the summer.

The high winds, not the government’s determination, seems to slow the influx of boats so far.

But this move has caused fears of how easily governments can throw a fundamental right in the name of security. He also leaves huge questions about those like Mustafa from Sudan who fled the war and are now being detained in Europe.