According to the Coast Guard, 190 migrants arrived in three distinct groups in the south of Crete Island
SAO PAULO, SP (Folhapress) – Greece has made its first arrests since suspended the right to asylum for people from North Africa, a controversial measure pointed out as irregular by human rights groups and opposition. About 200 migrants who arrived in the country were arrested on Saturday (19).
“The illegal immigrants who entered Libya in the last few hours have been arrested by the coastal guard,” said migration minister Thanos Plevris. “They are not entitled to ask for asylum and will not be taken to reception centers, but will remain under police custody until the return process began.”
According to the Coast Guard, 190 migrants arrived in three distinct groups in the south of Crete Island, and a fourth group, with 11 people, was located on the outskirts of Agathonisi Island near the coast of Turkey. According to state broadcaster ERT, one of these people was injured and died later in the hospital.
Last Friday (11), the Greek parliamentarians had voted for the temporary suspension of asylum requests made by migrants from North Africa by sea. The law, which received 177 votes in favor and 74 against, is valid for at least three months and allows the authorities to quickly repact migrants without any prior identification process.
“Given the strong increase of irregular arrivals by North Africa, particularly from Libya to Crete, we made the difficult but absolutely necessary, a decision to temporarily suspend the analysis of asylum requests,” Prime Minister’s Office, Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the German newspaper Bild. “Greece is not a gateway to Europe open to all.”
Despite the fuss of the authorities, the numbers of entry in the country fell dramatically compared to the 2015 and 2016 crisis, when hundreds of thousands of people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa passed through the nation.
Although there has been an increase in the Crete and Gavdos islands – numbers in these places have quadrupled to more than 7,000 so far this year, especially from people from Libya – sea entries as a whole fell 5.5%to 17,000, in the first half of this year, show UN data.
Human rights groups and opposition parties said the ban approved by the Parliament violates human rights. “Seeking refuge is a human right; preventing people from doing so is illegal and inhuman,” said Martha Rousou, consultant to the IRC humanitarian group (International Rescue Committee).
The 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol related to the Refugee Statute, of which Greece is signatory, follows a principle called Non-Refoulement, a basic precept that prevents the return of a potential refugee to prevent it from running danger in its country of origin.
“No signatory state will expel or return a refugee, anyway, to the borders of territories where their life or freedom are threatened by their race, religion, nationality, belonging to a particular social group or political opinion,” says Article 33 of the document adopted after World War II.
The government denies any irregularity.
The measure marks a new hardening of Greece’s posture in relation to migration under Mitsotakis, which built a fence on its terrestrial borders to the north and intensified maritime patrols since taking power in 2019. This year, the border agency of
European Union claimed to be analyzing 12 cases of potential human rights violations by Greece.
The Ministry of Migration has also prepared legislative measures that will allow the detention of migrants for up to two years in cases of irregular entry, and up to five years if they remain illegally in the country. “I am a great defender of Dismissal. (…) We are not a hotel,” Plevris told Open TV last Thursday (17), classifying the migratory flow as an invasion.
