Greece stops asylum applications for migrants from North Africa

Greece has stopped processing asylum applications from North Africa for three months after a jump in the number of migrants.

Arrival by boat from the region will be arrested and detained, said conservative Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitotakis.

He added that Greece “sends a determination message … to all traffickers and all their potential customers, that the money they spend can be completely wasted because it will be difficult to reach Greece by sea.”

“This emergency situation requires emergency response measures.”

Mitsotakis added that the provisions will be based on The same legal reflections are applied in 2020. Stop thousands of people to cross the land border with Turkey.

A draft legislation will be placed before Parliament on Thursday.

“A clear message: Stay where you are, we don’t accept you,” Migration Minister Thanos Pleprise said at X.

Mitsotakis’s announcement follows a significant growth in the arrival of migrants in the southern islands of Crete and Gavdos.

More than 2000 migrants have landed on Crete in recent days, and another 520 have been rescued off the coast earlier Wednesday, carrying the total number from the beginning of 2025 to 9,000.

This has been an increase of 350% since last year, said President of the Coast Guard Staff Association of Western Crete Vasilis Catikandarakis. “Immigration suffocates us … Our staff is literally on our knees,” he said.

“The streams are very high,” Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told Action 24 Channel on Tuesday, adding that the wave “grows and continues”.

According to the public television operator ERT, the authorities in Crete are under significant logistical tension, as the pace and scale of arrivals continue to exceed the capacity of the available accommodation infrastructure.

Several hundred people had to be temporarily placed in the market hall, local media said, adding that there were 30 families with young children and babies among migrants.

ERT said that the redistribution of migrants in other parts of the country is a particularly slow process, as the tourist season means less buses and ferries.

On Tuesday, the Greek, Italian and Maltese ministers, as well as the EU Migration Commissioner, travel to Libya to discuss the jump in migrant depatures.

But they had to look back when the Government of National Stability (GNS) – a rival of the recognized government of national unity (GNU) – blocked them to enter the country, accusing them of violating Libyan sovereignty.

However, Mitotakis said that the Greek army was ready to cooperate with the Libyan authorities to prevent the boats from leaving the Libyan coast.

The NGO has repeatedly criticized the attempts of European governments to create deals with the Libyan authorities to overcome the flow of migrants.

People who are captured by the Libyan Coast Guard and returned ashore are often closed to the detention bearings where they are subject to inhuman treatment and difficult conditions.

“Attempts to stop departure at all costs show complete disregard for the life and dignity of migrants and refugees,” said Amnesty International.