Greece’s parliament has approved an overhaul of immigration rules designed to tighten screening procedures for asylum seekers.
Authorities will also be given more powers to lock up migrants facing deportation.
The new law removes control over asylum seekers from the police and hands it over to a new asylum service that will deal with a backlog of some 47,000 applicants, many of them awaiting approval for years. The law will also put in place a procedure for appealing rejected asylum requests.
Citizens’ Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis said the law would allow Greece to set up a screening process under which illegal migrants “will be voluntarily repatriated or expelled”.
He also expressed renewed support for building a fence along a 12.5-kilometre (8-mile) stretch of the Greek-Turkish border, despite sharp criticism from rights groups and opposition parties.
Rights groups have repeatedly criticised Greece for failing to provide adequate shelter and support to people fleeing conflict in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
Would-be immigrants and asylum seekers are currently kept in squalid and congested detention centres and police cells for months.
Most are then released with an administrative order to leave the country. Some try to book illegal passage to other European countries but the majority end up on the street, destitute and at risk from criminal gangs.
Athens has responded to the criticism by saying it wants the rest of Europe to share the burden and accept migrants and refugees using Greece as an entry-point to the continent.
Source: Associated Press, Reuters