Latest news with #GreekGovernment
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Greece Creates Two Marine Parks That May Revive Turkey Tensions
Greece will establish two national marine parks in an effort to protect ocean wildlife, a move that could potentially strain ties with neighboring Turkey. The parks will be located in the Ionian Sea and in the Southern Cyclades, an island group in the Aegean Sea, west and east of the mainland respectively. The Greek government's pledge to create a marine park in the Aegean Sea drew pushback from Turkey last year. The two countries have historically been at odds over sea borders and economic rights in parts of the eastern Mediterranean.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
'Don't come here': Greece's immigration minister warns North Africans
The Greek immigration minister does not mince his words. He may be new to the job but his message to the millions of young men waiting in North Africa to come to his country for a life in Europe is clear: 'Don't come here. We will put you in jail or send you back home.' In an exclusive interview with the Mail, Thanos Plevris said: 'The Greeks, like the rest of Europe, want to help real refugees, but we will not be taken for fools. It is the end of the fairy tale that those coming to Greece and Europe in incredible numbers are all women and children. They are mainly men aged between 18 and 30 who are economic migrants. We are not a hotel any more.' 'Many are from safe countries, such as Egypt, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Now we are telling them that if you sail in illegally by boat to Greece, do not expect asylum but get ready for five years in jail or a ticket home instead.' Greece is on the frontline of Europe's out-of-control migration crisis that, as Britons know well, has reached northern France where trafficking gangs are using fleets of small boats to send tens of thousands of migrants to Dover. Greece, on the other side of the continent, has its own relentless wave of newcomers. This year, at least 10,000 migrants have reached its biggest island, Crete, from lawless Libya a few hundred miles away across the Mediterranean Sea. In the first week of this month alone, just after Mr Plevris was appointed immigration minister, a surge of 4,000 arrived illegally on the island, which is struggling to cope. The coastguard and police are holding the uninvited foreigners in emergency camps in empty warehouses where they get a chilly welcome, basic rations and sleep on concrete floors. As we witnessed, they are young men growing dangerously angry while incarcerated against their will in the stifling summer heat. 'Our big problem today is with Libya and who they are sending over,' the plain-speaking and unapologetic Mr Plevris told me as he promised to stifle the migration flow for ever. 'Libya is using big vessels carrying 200, even 300, people. Of all those who have arrived, 85 per cent are male, and the majority of them are young. They are using Greece to enter Europe illegally for a new life. If we just continue to sit and watch, it will never end. Three million migrants are today massing in Libya. Now I plan to deter them from setting off for here.' Ten days ago, the Greek parliament passed a new law to help Mr Plevris get his wish. It suspended all asylum applications from those arriving illegally from North Africa for 'at least three months' due to the 'extraordinary' migration emergency. The European Union has sided with Athens, saying the Greek crisis is 'exceptional'. Under the legislation, due to be introduced within days, most of the illegal arrivals will have two choices: a five-year prison spell or deportation to their home country, at Greece's expense. 'We will no longer tolerate an invasion from North Africa,' Mr Plevris said. Migrant camps with prison-like accommodation are being prepared on the mainland to house future arrivals. 'Our immigration ministry is not a hotel service,' Mr Plevris added in a headline-grabbing television soundbite after the law won overwhelming support in parliament. He is also reviewing the 'current situation' where migrants are placed, sometimes for years, in welcoming reception centres with 'menu-style' meals and state benefits, while it is decided if they are genuine refugees or not. Greece's revolutionary agenda is backed by the country's prime minister. A key aide said: 'This is an urgent situation. We are taking extraordinary steps that are difficult and strict. Our government can no longer accept the migration flows from North Africa. People there need to think twice before they pay a large sum of money [to traffickers] to come to this country.' It is anybody's guess if the thousands of young men who have reached Crete in the new surge realise what a bleak future lies ahead. But in the few days since the law was voted in, no boats have arrived from Libya. When the Mail visited two of Crete's emergency holding camps, we were allowed to walk inside among the migrants but not permitted to speak to them. 'Be careful,' I was warned by an armed police officer guarding 400 migrants at a camp on the outskirts of Chania, two hours from the Crete capital of Heraklion. 'These are dangerous people. They all want something from you, even just a cigarette, and they get angry if you don't hand it over.' Inside the warehouse camp, the smell of unwashed men and urine made my eyes smart. As we walked in, the migrants shouted for help, putting up their hands to show ten fingers, the number of days they have been incarcerated here. There was a tinderbox atmosphere and the conditions were unpalatable, to say the least. Some migrants were lying on mattresses, resorting to sharing because there are so few. For the unlucky ones, it was a concrete floor with a T-shirt for a pillow. 'They all sit with their own nationalities, the Egyptians together, the Palestinians together, and so on,' said one female guard at the door of the warehouse. 'They are very difficult to control. There are so few of us, just five, and so many of them. We are tired, they are tired. It is not a safe situation.' One pitiful boy, who whispers to me that he is an Egyptian and 14, is barefoot and wearing just underpants and a shredded T-shirt. In one corner, standing alone, is a tall figure with dark hair and his neck covered in the red and white scarf of Palestine. 'He will say he is Egyptian, if he is asked,' a guard told me. 'But he has come from Gaza. He won't have an identity document because he will have destroyed it before reaching Greece. It makes our job of finding out who these people are, if they are bad or good, more difficult.' The police guards, just three men and two women, were under stress. If they open by a crack the giant metal doors to the warehouse to get in and out, throngs of men run to the entrance to try to reach the fresh air and escape the stench for a minute or two. 'No, no, no,' shout the inmates in one crescendo of furious male voices as the doors are snapped shut. Nearer Heraklion, in the mid-Crete town of Rethymno, is a second warehouse camp. If anything, the atmosphere was more tense still. It is on rough land overlooking the sea and a beach, and had nearly 180 men inside when we visited. Inside, we saw a gruff-looking police officer using a metal baton to control the migrants. One Egyptian who argued with him, after dilly-dallying for a few minutes on a visit to the latrine block in the yard, was chased and hit on the arm by the officer. 'You can show my stick on your photographs,' the officer said to me, 'but not my face.' He added: 'These men are disappointed, angry, and increasingly volatile. They will remember me. They expected to get a free pass into Europe because the Libyan boat traffickers told them that. Now we are keeping them here. They are not getting what they wanted or hoped for. It is difficult to make them stay calm. You must be wary.' It is at the Rethymno camp that we saw migrants being deported, first to Heraklion port and then to mainland Greece, in an operation resembling the movement of prisoners. During the afternoon, they were brought out of the warehouse in six nationality groups and made to sit on the ground in the blazing sun for half an hour to wait for buses to take them to the ferry for Athens where migrant camps have already been toughened up. Some held cardboard from torn-up boxes over their heads to protect themselves from the sun as they sat in the dust. Nearly all were barefoot, some bare-chested, and each carried a blue plastic bag of possessions plus a bottle of water. We were told that the migrants and the buses would remain in a closed deck area of the ferry away from fee-paying passengers for the night crossing. It was an operation with little compassion for the migrants, but the country has clearly run out of patience. Mr Plevris, who belongs to the Right-wing faction of Greece's ruling and increasingly conservative New Democracy party, said: 'Our prime minister has warned for years of the problems with immigration. 'We want to support refugees, but we believe it is important for our society that we only take those who want to be part of Europe.' He pointed out how many of the illegal migrants want to 'transfer' their own cultures and religious beliefs to Europe. 'They want to go on living by their own rules and they want us to accept that. But we will no longer do so,' he added. Mr Plevris said the European asylum system was skewed. It encourages migrants who cheat by throwing away their passports (to avoid showing they come from safe countries) or lying about their age to boost their chances of being allowed to stay. Egyptians wanting to escape military service destroy identity papers to disguise the fact they come from a country listed as safe by the United Nations and European Union. If the words of Mr Plevris, 48, sound like common sense today, his critics have dredged up the fact that he was a political firebrand when first elected to parliament in 2007 as a member of a now defunct hard-Right anti-immigration party. In 2011, he made a much criticised speech in parliament, which is still on YouTube. He said: 'In my opinion, the immigration issue can be solved in two ways. The first way is border security, which cannot exist if there are no deaths [to the migrants]. 'The second is that we must understand the logic of disincentives. We must tell the migrants when you come here you will have no social benefits, you will not be able to drink, you will not be able to go to hospital. [The migrant] must tell others in Pakistan that he is having a worse time in Greece than back home. Unless he sees a life of hell and not a paradise, he will come.' Controversial though his speech was, his appointment is popular with ordinary Greeks today. As I travelled in Athens to interview Mr Plevris, the taxi driver recognised the address. 'Ah. Are you going to see the new minister,' he asked. 'I would like to send him a message from people like me. Tell him on migrants that enough is enough. No more must come in. We all feel the same. We wish him good luck with his new law.'
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE 'Don't come here. We'll put you in jail or send you home': That's the message from Greece's new immigration minister as his overwhelmed nation passes a hardline law. So will Keir Starmer take the slightest notice?
The Greek immigration minister does not mince his words. He may be new to the job but his message to the millions of young men waiting in North Africa to come to his country for a life in Europe is clear: 'Don't come here. We will put you in jail or send you back home.' In an exclusive interview with the Mail, Thanos Plevris said: 'The Greeks, like the rest of Europe, want to help real refugees, but we will not be taken for fools. It is the end of the fairy tale that those coming to Greece and Europe in incredible numbers are all women and children. They are mainly men aged between 18 and 30 who are economic migrants. We are not a hotel any more. 'Many are from safe countries, such as Egypt, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Now we are telling them that if you sail in illegally by boat to Greece, do not expect asylum but get ready for five years in jail or a ticket home instead.' Greece is on the frontline of Europe's out-of-control migration crisis that, as Britons know well, has reached northern France where trafficking gangs are using fleets of small boats to send tens of thousands of migrants to Dover. Greece, on the other side of the continent, has its own relentless wave of newcomers. This year, at least 10,000 migrants have reached its biggest island, Crete, from lawless Libya a few hundred miles away across the Mediterranean Sea. In the first week of this month alone, just after Mr Plevris was appointed immigration minister, a surge of 4,000 arrived illegally on the island, which is struggling to cope. The coastguard and police are holding the uninvited foreigners in emergency camps in empty warehouses where they get a chilly welcome, basic rations and sleep on concrete floors. As we witnessed, they are young men growing dangerously angry while incarcerated against their will in the stifling summer heat. 'Our big problem today is with Libya and who they are sending over,' the plain-speaking and unapologetic Mr Plevris told me as he promised to stifle the migration flow for ever. 'Libya is using big vessels carrying 200, even 300, people. Of all those who have arrived, 85 per cent are male, and the majority of them are young. They are using Greece to enter Europe illegally for a new life. 'If we just continue to sit and watch, it will never end. Three million migrants are today massing in Libya. 'Now I plan to deter them from setting off for here.' Ten days ago, the Greek parliament passed a new law to help Mr Plevris get his wish. It suspended all asylum applications from those arriving illegally from North Africa for 'at least three months' due to the 'extraordinary' migration emergency. The European Union has sided with Athens, saying the Greek crisis is 'exceptional'. Under the legislation, due to be introduced within days, most of the illegal arrivals will have two choices: a five-year prison spell or deportation to their home country, at Greece's expense. 'We will no longer tolerate an invasion from North Africa,' Mr Plevris said. Migrant camps with prison-like accommodation are being prepared on the mainland to house future arrivals. 'Our immigration ministry is not a hotel service,' Mr Plevris added in a headline-grabbing television soundbite after the law won overwhelming support in parliament. He is also reviewing the 'current situation' where migrants are placed, sometimes for years, in welcoming reception centres with 'menu-style' meals and state benefits, while it is decided if they are genuine refugees or not. Greece's revolutionary agenda is backed by the country's prime minister. A key aide said: 'This is an urgent situation. We are taking extraordinary steps that are difficult and strict. Our government can no longer accept the migration flows from North Africa. People there need to think twice before they pay a large sum of money [to traffickers] to come to this country.' It is anybody's guess if the thousands of young men who have reached Crete in the new surge realise what a bleak future lies ahead. But in the few days since the law was voted in, no boats have arrived from Libya. When the Mail visited two of Crete's emergency holding camps, we were allowed to walk inside among the migrants but not permitted to speak to them. 'Be careful,' I was warned by an armed police officer guarding 400 migrants at a camp on the outskirts of Chania, two hours from the Crete capital of Heraklion. 'These are dangerous people. They all want something from you, even just a cigarette, and they get angry if you don't hand it over.' Inside the warehouse camp, the smell of unwashed men and urine made my eyes smart. As we walked in, the migrants shouted for help, putting up their hands to show ten fingers, the number of days they have been incarcerated here. There was a tinderbox atmosphere and the conditions were unpalatable, to say the least. Some migrants were lying on mattresses, resorting to sharing because there are so few. For the unlucky ones, it was a concrete floor with a T-shirt for a pillow. 'They all sit with their own nationalities, the Egyptians together, the Palestinians together, and so on,' said one female guard at the door of the warehouse. 'They are very difficult to control. There are so few of us, just five, and so many of them. We are tired, they are tired. It is not a safe situation.' One pitiful boy, who whispers to me that he is an Egyptian and 14, is barefoot and wearing just underpants and a shredded T-shirt. In one corner, standing alone, is a tall figure with dark hair and his neck covered in the red and white scarf of Palestine. 'He will say he is Egyptian, if he is asked,' a guard told me. 'But he has come from Gaza. 'He won't have an identity document because he will have destroyed it before reaching Greece. It makes our job of finding out who these people are, if they are bad or good, more difficult.' The police guards, just three men and two women, were under stress. If they open by a crack the giant metal doors to the warehouse to get in and out, throngs of men run to the entrance to try to reach the fresh air and escape the stench for a minute or two. 'No, no, no,' shout the inmates in one crescendo of furious male voices as the doors are snapped shut. Nearer Heraklion, in the mid-Crete town of Rethymno, is a second warehouse camp. If anything, the atmosphere was more tense still. It is on rough land overlooking the sea and a beach, and had nearly 180 men inside when we visited. Inside, we saw a gruff-looking police officer using a metal baton to control the migrants. One Egyptian who argued with him, after dilly-dallying for a few minutes on a visit to the latrine block in the yard, was chased and hit on the arm by the officer. 'You can show my stick on your photographs,' the officer said to me, 'but not my face.' He added: 'These men are disappointed, angry, and increasingly volatile. They will remember me. They expected to get a free pass into Europe because the Libyan boat traffickers told them that. Now we are keeping them here. They are not getting what they wanted or hoped for. It is difficult to make them stay calm. You must be wary.' It is at the Rethymno camp that we saw migrants being deported, first to Heraklion port and then to mainland Greece, in an operation resembling the movement of prisoners. During the afternoon, they were brought out of the warehouse in six nationality groups and made to sit on the ground in the blazing sun for half an hour to wait for buses to take them to the ferry for Athens where migrant camps have already been toughened up. Some held cardboard from torn-up boxes over their heads to protect themselves from the sun as they sat in the dust. Nearly all were barefoot, some bare-chested, and each carried a blue plastic bag of possessions plus a bottle of water. We were told that the migrants and the buses would remain in a closed deck area of the ferry away from fee-paying passengers for the night crossing. It was an operation with little compassion for the migrants, but the country has clearly run out of patience. Mr Plevris, who belongs to the Right-wing faction of Greece's ruling and increasingly conservative New Democracy party, said: 'Our prime minister has warned for years of the problems with immigration. 'We want to support refugees, but we believe it is important for our society that we only take those who want to be part of Europe.' He pointed out how many of the illegal migrants want to 'transfer' their own cultures and religious beliefs to Europe. 'They want to go on living by their own rules and they want us to accept that. But we will no longer do so,' he added. Mr Plevris said the European asylum system was skewed. It encourages migrants who cheat by throwing away their passports (to avoid showing they come from safe countries) or lying about their age to boost their chances of being allowed to stay. Egyptians wanting to escape military service destroy identity papers to disguise the fact they come from a country listed as safe by the United Nations and European Union. If the words of Mr Plevris, 48, sound like common sense today, his critics have dredged up the fact that he was a political firebrand when first elected to parliament in 2007 as a member of a now defunct hard-Right anti-immigration party. In 2011, he made a much criticised speech in parliament, which is still on YouTube. He said: 'In my opinion, the immigration issue can be solved in two ways. The first way is border security, which cannot exist if there are no deaths [to the migrants]. 'The second is that we must understand the logic of disincentives. We must tell the migrants when you come here you will have no social benefits, you will not be able to drink, you will not be able to go to hospital. '[The migrant] must tell others in Pakistan that he is having a worse time in Greece than back home. Unless he sees a life of hell and not a paradise, he will come.' Controversial though his speech was, his appointment is popular with ordinary Greeks today. As I travelled in Athens to interview Mr Plevris, the taxi driver recognised the address. 'Ah. Are you going to see the new minister,' he asked. 'I would like to send him a message from people like me. Tell him on migrants that enough is enough. No more must come in. We all feel the same. We wish him good luck with his new law.'
Daily Mail
11-07-2025
- Climate
- Daily Mail
Major warning issued as tourist destination closes down early due to heatwave
Greece has been hit with a severe heatwave which has led to one of its biggest tourist attractions closing for the afternoon. The Acropolis was closed from 1-5pm on Tuesday as temperatures soared to 38 degrees in Athens. Outdoor labourers and food delivery workers were also ordered to take a break in the afternoons by the Greek Government. The Government has also urged employers to provide remote working options for staff due to concerns over the heat. Hot weather is likely to continue with temperatures of 37 degrees forecast for next Monday in Athens. The Foreign Office has urged British tourists to take care in the hot weather and issued a warning over wildfires. It said: 'There is a high risk of wildfires during the summer season from April to October. 'Ensure that your mobile phone is registered to receive emergency alerts to be warned of wildfires near your location. Wildfires are highly dangerous and unpredictable.' Around 5,000 tourists were forced to evacuate in Crete in early July when wildfires broke out on the island. Causing a wildfire is a criminal offence in Greece and tourists have been urged not to leave litter on the ground, ensure cigarettes are extinguished and avoid lighting barbecues. British tourists have been urged to follow the guidance of emergency services and follow the @112Greece X account for updates. Travellers should call Greece's 112 emergency line if they are in immediate danger. Meanwhile in Spain, more than 18,000 people were ordered to stay at home in Catalonia on Tuesday due to a wildfire. In France, Marseille-Provence Airport was forced to close on Tuesday due to a dangerous fire that injured more than 100 people.
Asharq Al-Awsat
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Greece Blocks Asylum Claims for Migrants on Crete after Surge in Arrivals
Greece's government said Wednesday it is temporarily suspending asylum applications for migrants arriving on the island of Crete, following a spike in arrivals from Libya. More than 2,000 migrants have landed on the island since the weekend, according to coast guard figures, bringing the total number of arrivals this year to over 10,000. Speaking in parliament, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the government also planned to build a detention site on Crete for migrants and was seeking direct collaboration between the Libya and Greek coast guards to turn back boats leaving the North African country. 'This emergency situation clearly demands emergency measures,' Mitsotakis told parliament Wednesday. 'The Greek government has decided to inform the European Commission that ... it will suspend the processing of asylum applications — for an initial period of three months — for those arriving by sea from North Africa.' According to The Associated Press, the suspension will apply only to migrants reaching Crete by sea. Migrants entering illegally will be detained, Mitsotakis said. 'The Greek government is sending a firm message: the route to Greece is closing, and that message is directed at all human traffickers,' he said. Overnight, a fishing trawler carrying 520 migrants from Libya was intercepted south of Crete. A bulk carrier that took all of the migrants onboard was rerouted to the port of Lavrio, near Athens, so that the migrants could be detained on a mainland facility, authorities said.
