Greece suspends asylum procedures for migrants from North Africa
Greece temporarily suspends asylum applications of migrants that reach the country by the sea of North Africa. After two days of debate, the Parliament in Athens voted to approve the measure on Friday.
According to an official parliamentary chief, 177 members of the Parliament (deputies) voted in favor of change and 74 against.
The Government said that Ohenes had informed the European Commission of this decision.
The measurement is mainly intended as a deterrence and will initially apply for three months.
The conservative government said that migrants arriving would be detained and would return to their country of origin or from origin as quickly as possible.
“The road to Greece will be closed, it is the message to the smugglers,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said during the parliamentary debate.
However, repatriations are not easy to implement because some countries of origin do not cooperate to resume their nationals.
The left opposition in Greece considers the decision to be a violation of human rights.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also expressed concern. “The right to seek asylum is a fundamental human right, devoted to international, European and national law, and applies to everyone, no matter how and where they arrive in a country,” the organization said in a press release.
In recent weeks, there has been a sharp increase in the number of migrants leaving Libya and arriving on the island of Crete. According to migrants, the smugglers charge up to € 5,000 ($ 5,843) for the crossing of 300 kilometers.
