The Greek Shoreline: Where the Mediterranean’s Future is Shaped

Greek parliament approves new suspensions of asylum applications for migrants arriving by sea from North Africa.

 On 11 July 2025, the Greek parliament in Athens voted for a new refugee law that passed with 117 votes for and 74 votes against. This new law is meant to suspend, temporarily for a period of three months, the registration of new asylum applications for refugees from North Africa. This comes about as the number of refugees entering Greece since the beginning of 2025 has increased, particularly on the Greek islands of Crete and Gavdos, from Libya. According to Greek authorities, asylum seekers and migrants attempting to enter the country from North Africa will be “returned to their countries of origin without registration.”

The international community has been extremely critical of the situation. According to Adriana Tidona, a Migration Researcher at Amnesty International, Greece’s proposal, “that flagrantly violates international law, will do nothing to improve conditions for refugees and migrants already in Crete and Gavdos, and will only punish people seeking protection.” The main concern for many international actors is that this proposition is in direct violation of international law. According to international statute, “denying the right to seek asylum based on how someone arrives is discriminatory and violates the core principles of refugee protections.” To put this more simply, international law strictly prohibits the return of people to their countries of origin before first assessing their circumstances. Pushbacks and reversals would send these refugees back to war-stricken countries. Thus, Tidona stresses that the “Greek government should immediately reverse this decision.”

As a signatory of the EU Fundamental Rights Charter, Greece finds itself cornered. The charter binds EU member states to respect the right of asylum and prohibits sending anyone to “a place they face a risk of torture.” The UN Refugee Agency, the UNHCR, has also commented on Greece’s decision to suspend asylum applications, stressing that the right to seek asylum is a “fundamental right enshrined in international, European, and national law that applies to everyone regardless of how or where they arrive in the country.” Accordingly, even at times of “migratory pressure, states must ensure that people seeking asylum have access to asylum procedures.” The core controversy, therefore, lies in Greece’s justification for returning individuals to their countries of origin even when those who arrive on the islands are people with clear protection needs, including those fleeing active conflict. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced conversations with Libyan authorities to figure out a way to halt migration flows from Greece and prevent migration departures altogether. Prime Minister Mitsotakis explains, “we have taken the difficult but absolutely necessary decision to temporarily suspend the examination of asylum applications.”

With that said, these measures are not the first of their kind in the country. In 2020, Greece adopted similar measures to curb the number of refugee arrivals at its border with Turkey, suspending asylum procedures and pushing for the repatriation of these refugees. Amnesty International reported an increase in cases of pushbacks and beatings to discourage refugees from entering the country. These are just part of a series of reforms hardening Greece’s stance towards migrants under Mitsotakis’ center-right government. This year alone, the EU border agencies have reviewed 12 cases of potential human rights violations by Greece against refugees coming from North African countries.

According to journalists Angeliki Koutantou and Nicolas Economou, “Greece is not a gateway to Europe open to everyone.” Since 2015, when Greece managed hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, flows have dropped significantly. According to UN data, sea-based arrivals to Greece have dropped by 5.5% in the first half of this year, leveling to just about 17,000 new arrivals. Of these, thousands have been migrants rescued by the Greek coastguard off the coast of Crete. In light of these developments, Martha Roussou, a senior advisor for the aid group IRC, stresses that “seeking refuge is a human right, preventing people from doing so is both illegal and inhumane.”

In Greece, asylum seekers often first spend anywhere from three months to a year in refugee camps near the Greek-Turkish border before being moved to Athens. Once in Athens, refugee applications can be further prolonged, extending the original procedure of three months to years of uncertainty. Currently, the ministry is working on passing new legislation that would make it a criminal offense for a refugee to stay in Greece if their application is rejected, coupled with a five-year prison sentence “unless the individual agrees to leave the country voluntarily.” Recently, from Libya alone, over 9,000 people arrived on the island of Crete, a number that is almost double that of those who landed on the island in 2024 as a whole.

Another concern for EU policymakers is the precedent that this amendment could possibly set. According to the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, “this proposal would legalize returning people to face a risk of torture and other serious violations, in breach of obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.” O’Flaherty argued that “the humanitarian situation would be manageable if authorities had addressed the lack of reception capacity in a timely manner.” While the outcomes of the situation remain uncertain, its implications will be far-reaching, extending beyond just Greece’s borders to shape refugee laws and frameworks across Europe and the international community.