Greek lawmakers to vote on North Africa asylum ban as rights groups cry foul

AGYIA, Crete (Reuters) -Greek lawmakers were set to vote on legislation on Thursday that would temporarily halt the processing of asylum applications of people coming from North Africa, a move rights groups have called illegal. 

The vote comes amid a surge in migrant arrivals to the island of Crete and as talks with divided Libya's Benghazi-based eastern government to help stem the flow were cancelled acrimoniously this week. 

Greece, one of the main gateways into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa, has taken an increasingly tough stance on migration since Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' centre-right party came to power in 2019, building a fence at its northern land borders and boosting sea patrols in the east.

Sea arrivals of migrants travelling from northeastern Libya to its southern islands of Crete and Gavdos, the closest European territory to North Africa, have surged this year.

Dozens of migrants, including children, sat on mattresses in a temporary reception centre in Agyia, near the city of Chania, on Thursday. There were among hundreds rescued by the Greek coastguard in the Libyan Sea off Crete in recent days.

"We are experiencing what I would call the worst crisis of the past two years, with hundreds of migrants disembarking on the southern coast of the island," said Vasilis Katsikandarakis, head of the coastguard staff in western Crete. "All the burden has fallen onto the coastguard, who don't have the necessary equipment and personnel to deal with such flows."

In response to the spike, Mitsotakis' government proposed legislation on Wednesday stipulating that migrants crossing illegally to Greece from North Africa by sea would not be able to file for an asylum for three months.

A vote on the law, which would also allow authorities to quickly deport those migrants without any prior identification process, was expected later on Thursday or early on Friday.

Human rights groups said the asylum ban would violate international and European law, and called on the Greek government to recall it.

"Seeking refuge is a human right; preventing people from doing so is both illegal and inhumane," the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said in a statement.

The government who controls 155 lawmakers in the 300-seated parliament  said on Wednesday the ban was "an emergency response to an emergency situation".

Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said on Thursday the move was a fair one, aimed to make Greece less attractive to illegal migrants. "No-one is less humanitarian than anyone else in this country and in Europe," he said.

Greece has long been accused by aid groups of forcibly ejecting migrants at its sea and land borders, also known as "pushbacks," an illegal practice.

A Greek naval court has charged 17 coastguard officers over one of the Mediterranean's worst shipwrecks two years ago, in which hundreds of people are believed to have drowned.

(Reporting by Nicolas Economou and Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Alex Richardson)