By Lefteris Papadimas
ATHENS (Reuters) -Greece will stop processing asylum applications of people coming from North Africa, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday, amid a surge in migrant arrivals.
The announcement came a day after EU’s migration commissioner and ministers from Italy, Malta and Greece were denied entry to the eastern part of divided Libya and declared persona non grata by the Benghazi-based government ahead of a scheduled meeting on migration.
“With legislation that will be submitted to the parliament tomorrow, Greece will suspend the examination of asylum applications, initially for three months, for those arriving in Greece from North Africa by sea,” Mitsotakis told parliament.
He added that he intended to return to Libya all migrants who entered Greece “illegally”.
Sea arrivals of migrants travelling from northeastern Libya to Greece’s southern islands of Crete and Gavdos have surged to more than 7,300 this year, according to estimates by the Greek government and aid agencies. That compares with around 5,000 in the whole of 2024.
The migrants mainly come from the Middle East and North Africa, including nationals from Sudan, Egypt and Bangladesh. Greece rescued about 520 migrants off Gavdos early on Wednesday and was taking them to the mainland, the Greek coastguard said.
Athens has deployed two frigates near Libyan territorial waters and reinforced its coastguard vessels patrolling off Crete in a bid to stem the flow. Greece and Libya have been trying to mend relations strained by an accord signed in 2019 between the Libyan government and Turkey.
“The Greek government sends a message… the passage to Greece is closed, and sends a message to all smugglers and all their potential clients that the money they spend is completely wasted,” said Mitsotakis.
(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Alison Williams and Alex Richardson)
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