Greece’s parliament has passed a new law tightening penalties for rejected asylum seekers and expediting their return to home countries, amid a renewed surge of migrant arrivals at its southern borders.
The legislation, adopted on Wednesday, stipulates that undocumented migrants from countries the European Union deems safe, and therefore ineligible for asylum, must either return voluntarily or face up to 24 months in detention along with fines of as much as €10,000.
Although migration flows into Greece have fallen sharply since the 2015–2016 crisis, when more than a million people fleeing conflict and poverty entered Europe through the country, recent increases — particularly arrivals from Libya via Crete and Gavdos — prompted the government to suspend asylum applications for North African nationals earlier this year.
The law underscores Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s conservative government’s hardline stance on migration. Since coming to power in 2019, the administration has expanded border fences with Turkey and strengthened maritime patrols to curb irregular crossings.
“Greeks have the right to protect their country, and that outweighs the right of someone whose asylum application has been rejected to stay illegally,” Migration Minister Thanos Plevris told lawmakers on Tuesday.
The move, however, has drawn criticism from humanitarian groups. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cautioned that the law risks penalising people with legitimate claims to protection. Instead, it urged Athens to adopt fast-track asylum screening to distinguish genuine refugees from those not entitled to stay.
Greek officials insist that returns will comply with international law. Hundreds of irregular migrants were repatriated in July following the suspension of asylum applications, with additional flights planned this month to Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt.
Still, Greece faces mounting scrutiny over its migration practices. Human rights organisations have long accused the country of carrying out illegal “pushbacks” at its borders, while the EU border agency Frontex is currently investigating a dozen alleged rights violations by Greek authorities.
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