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Greece suspends asylum applications for migrants from North Africa
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 9, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 9, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Greece suspends asylum applications from North Africa for three months due to increased migrant arrivals on Crete, impacting immigration policy.
ATHENS (Reuters) -Greece will stop processing asylum applications from people coming from North Africa for three months after a rise in arrivals on the island of Crete, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday.
Sea arrivals from northeastern Libya of migrants trying to cross to Europe through Greece's southern islands of Crete and Gavdos have surged to more than 7,300 this year, according to estimates by the Greek government and aid agencies.
That compares with around 5,000 in the whole of 2004.
"With legislation that will be submitted to the parliament tomorrow, Greece will suspend the examination of asylum applications, initially for three months, for those arriving in Greece from North Africa by sea," Mitsotakis told parliament.
The spike in arrivals has put pressure on the two islands, which lack organised migration reception camps and have struggled to find temporary housing facilities.
The migrants mainly come from the Middle East and North Africa, including nationals from Sudan, Egypt and Bangladesh.
Greece rescued about 520 migrants off Gavdos early on Wednesday and was taking them to the mainland, the Greek coastguard said.
"Migrants who enter the country illegally will be arrested and detained," Mitsotakis added.
The Mediterranean nation was on the frontline of the 2015-2016 migration crisis when more than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa crossed into Europe.
(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Alison Williams)
Greece is suspending asylum applications for three months due to a significant rise in migrant arrivals from North Africa, particularly to the islands of Crete and Gavdos.
More than 7,300 migrants have arrived in Greece from northeastern Libya this year, compared to around 5,000 in the entire year of 2004.
Migrants who enter Greece illegally will be arrested and detained, as stated by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Crete and Gavdos are struggling with a lack of organized migration reception camps and temporary housing facilities for the increasing number of migrants.
Greece was at the forefront of the migration crisis during 2015-2016, when over a million people fleeing war and poverty crossed into Europe.
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