'We live here like in prison': Migrants arrive on Crete via new route

The right of every person to seek protection or asylum is guaranteed by the laws of the European Union (EU), international law, and even the Constitution of Greece.

However, earlier this month the Greek government suspended that right for at least three months, prompting condemnation from human rights lawyers.

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Photo: Francesco Tosto/BBC
Photo: Francesco Tosto/BBC
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

In the middle of the stuffy, spacious hall, the men sit in silence, with nothing to occupy their attention except waiting.

Signs from an old tourist event placed behind them invite visitors to "explore the beauty of nature" with a display of the bays and beaches of Crete.

But those now being held in the former Agia exhibition center did not come to the Greek island as tourists.

These are migrants who risked their lives to cross the sea from Libya to the southernmost point of Europe, and were then detained and denied the right to apply for asylum.

From Crete they are now being moved to closed centers on the mainland.

The right of every person to seek protection or asylum is guaranteed by the laws of the European Union (EU), international law, and even the Constitution of Greece.

However, earlier this month the Greek government suspended that right for a period of at least three months, prompting condemnation from human rights lawyers.

Greece is in a "state of emergency," Thanos Plevris, the new migration minister, told the BBC.

He warns that an "invasion" will follow unless Europe takes tough measures and says that migrants need to be deterred.

"Anyone who comes will be detained and returned," the minister emphasizes.

Francesco Tosto/BBC

The guards at the old exhibition center forbade the migrants from talking to us.

"They are in custody," they told us.

Greece was hit by a heat wave, and many men were in undershirts or shirtless.

There are a few taps in the corners of the room, but no real showers, and there are only dirty blankets on the floor.

Next to the door are boxes containing donated clothes and toys, but the guards did not unpack them, fearing that it would cause a fight.

Over the course of two days, we saw only a few hundred migrants in this hall, and we heard that they were coming from Egypt, Bangladesh, Yemen, and Sudan.

About twenty teenagers and two women were sitting in the corner.

However, when 900 people arrived from Libya over a weekend in July, the center was extremely crowded.

From January to the end of June, more than 7.000 migrants arrived in Crete, more than three times the number in 2024.

During that period, Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, recorded almost 20.000 crossings in the eastern Mediterranean, with the Libya-Crete corridor now the main route.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJCwSDh4KnQ

People smugglers began sending people to Crete on a larger scale after Italy signed a highly controversial agreement with Libya a few years ago, which allows for interception at sea and return of migrants, despite numerous evidence of human rights violations.

And in mid-July, the government in Athens also decided to take tough measures.

"The road to Greece is closing," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told parliament, announcing that all migrants who enter illegally will be arrested.

A few days later, Mustafa, a 20-year-old who had fled the war in Sudan, was detained.

From the center in Crete, Mustafa was transferred to a camp near Athens known as Amygdaleza.

These are rows of gray prefabricated barracks in a clearing, surrounded by a high fence and security cameras.

"We live here like in prison," Mustafa told me when I managed to get in touch with him by phone.

"They don't allow us to move."

"We have no clothes or shoes."

"We are in a very bad situation."

Lawyers who visited the Amigdalezu camp confirmed his story, saying that recently arrived migrants walk barefoot on the hot ground and are given only basic information about their status.

Sudanese citizens are usually granted asylum in Europe.

BBC

In many voice and text messages, Mustafa recounted how he had lived in difficult conditions in Libya for months, waiting for an opportunity to escape.

Then he spent two days at sea with 38 other people crammed into a plastic boat, which almost sank.

"We couldn't reach land because of the waves," Mustafa said.

After surviving that ordeal, he now fears that Greece will try to take him back.

"I left my country because of the war, I can't go back," says Mustafa.

"I come from Sudan because there is war in Sudan, and I want protection."

"That's why I came here."

"Now we don't know what fate awaits us."

BBC

Migration Minister Thanos Plevris says he takes a "tough" stance on migrants.

"It is clear that a country cannot accept such a large number of migrants without reacting," Plevris said, defending the Greek government's new decision.

He claims that Crete received "a thousand, even three thousand people from Libya" daily, but that after Libya's intervention, the number was reduced to around a thousand in three days.

Plevris does not see the suspension of asylum applications as a problem, suggesting that refugees from Sudan could simply remain in Libya.

"I want to be completely honest.

"We are trying to find a balance between respecting their rights and respecting the rights of the people of Greece," the minister said.

"Anyone who enters Greek territory in the next three months knows they are violating Greek law."

The European Commission says it is examining the Greek government's move.

A Commission spokesman told the BBC that this situation was "exceptional" because the sudden increase in arrivals by small boats could have "security implications for the whole of Europe".

A similar measure was introduced by Poland, which suspended the processing of asylum applications at its eastern border back in March, although it applies certain exceptions.

Greece, as a reminder, previously suspended the acceptance of asylum applications in 2020 during an increased influx of people from Turkish territory.

Certain obligations of states under the European Convention on Human Rights may be suspended in "time of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation".

Whether the current situation poses such a serious threat to Greece and Poland is a highly debatable issue.

"This article applies in the event of war or mass uprising," explains Dimitris Fourakis, a lawyer who works with migrants in Crete and sees a worrying trend across Europe.

He warns that detention centers will soon fill up, because, as he says, "it is easy to say that migrants will be returned, but it is extremely difficult to implement."

"I think this decision is completely illegal."

"It's a very big step, a very wrong step."

"The best thing they can do now is to withdraw it immediately," says the lawyer.

A BBC reporter introduced himself as a migrant and learned what a people smuggling network looks like:

The surge in boat arrivals coincided with the start of the tourist season in Crete when beaches and bars are packed with visitors, and the migration minister says his priority is to protect the tourism industry.

"I've never seen a single migrant," admits Andreas Lougiakis, a restaurant owner in the picturesque village of Paleochori on the southern coast of Crete.

He says the boats mostly arrive at the small island of Gavdos.

Even the mere talk of migrant arrivals is negatively affecting business, he adds.

"Of course we feel sorry for those people, but... people think this place is full of immigrants and there's no room on the beaches, that everything is taken," says Andreas.

"We're just worried about our jobs and our families."

The suspension of asylum processing is part of a broader set of measures against illegal migrants.

The migration minister plans to imprison anyone who does not leave Greece when their asylum application is rejected and to introduce the wearing of earmuffs.

He also announced a "serious review" of social services for migrants.

Citing talks in Libya, Plevris claims that "millions" of people in North Africa are waiting to cross to Europe, and says other countries should be grateful for his determination.

"You should know that if the countries on the EU's external borders do not take tough measures, then all this influx of migrants will be directed towards your societies," warns Plevris.

"Greece has said this before, but no one listened to us then."

Every day at dusk, the Greek Coast Guard escorts groups of migrants to the port in Crete and boards them on a night ferry to Athens.

When the number of arrivals increased in early July, they had trouble fitting them all onto the ferry.

The minister claims that the suspension of asylum applications is a temporary measure, which will most likely only last through the summer.

It appears that strong winds, rather than the determination of the Greek government, have slowed the arrival of the boats for now.

But this decision raises concerns that authorities can so easily overturn a basic human right in the name of security.

It also raises many important questions for people like Mustafa from Sudan, who fled the war and are now detained in Europe.

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