Greece has passed draconian legislation that could mean rejected asylum seekers receiving prison terms, fines and orders to wear ankle tags, in a move that reflects the centre-right government’s continued attempts to deter undocumented migrants from arriving on its soil.
The tough penalties usher in an unprecedented era of zero tolerance for people who remain in the country if their asylum claims are denied. As a frontier state, long viewed as a gateway to Europe, Greece has had a surge in migrant arrivals this year.
“We are accountable to Greek citizens, and Greek citizens want to be protected,” the migration minister, Thanos Plevris, told MPs ahead of voting. “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.”
An unabashed rightwinger whose stance has caused ripples among the more moderate members of Greece’s centre-right government, Plevris insisted asylum would continue to be granted to applicants who fulfilled the need for international protection.
But under the new law, asylum seekers who have their claims rejected and do not leave the country within 14 days face prison terms of two to five years. Deterrence measures will also be toughened: people who arrive without the proper paperwork will be detained for 24 months, up from the current 18 months, while unregulated migrants who have been in Greece for seven years will no longer have the right to legalise their status. Those found guilty of illegal entry will be fined €10,000.
The measures come barely two months after the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, announced a controversial 90-day pause on asylum applications amid a rise in arrivals on the islands of Crete and Gavdos from Libya. In the first week of July, more than 2,000 people successfully made the crossing – a significant increase in a country where migrant numbers have fallen dramatically since 2015, when more than 850,000 people arrived at the height of the refugee crisis.
Mitsotakis insisted the suspension was aimed at sending smuggling rings a resounding message that “the passage to Greece is closed”, though it was condemned by human rights groups as a grave violation of international law.
In power since 2019, the government describes its migration policies as “tough but fair”, denying allegations of illegal pushbacks to keep asylum seekers at bay.
Addressing parliament, Plevris said he was proud to have overseen the legislation, which will put Greece at the forefront of policies that few EU members have wanted to enforce.
But on Wednesday the backlash was as instant as it was broad, with judges taking the unprecedented step of weighing in to criticise the legislation’s emphasis on repression.
Highlighting the lack of consensus over the measures, Dimitris Kairidis, who stepped down as migration and asylum minister in 2024, told the Guardian that while deterrence remained paramount, it was vital Athens also eased legal pathways of migration at a time when labour shortages were acute.
“Greece needs both to counter illegal, but also encourage legal, migration as needed by its growing economy,” he said.
During his tenure, Kairidis legalised the status of 30,000 unregistered migrant labourers desperately required in the agriculture, construction and tourism sectors.
With Greece gripped by a demographic crisis that last week forced the education ministry to close more than 750 schools because of the lack of pupils, migrant solidarity workers called the law racist and nonsensical.
“It’s so contradictory that this should be passed when Greece’s population is in such freefall, and when migrants offer the solution to labour shortages,” said the director of the Greek Council for Refugees, Lefteris Papagiannakis. “Mitsotakis has managed to hold the centre ground. With this openly racist law, he is clearly trying to enlarge his voter pool by appealing to the far right.”
