The Greek Council for Refugees on Tuesday questioned the legal basis of the government’s suspension of asylum claims to stem a surge in arrivals of irregular migrants.
Hundreds of migrants who have crossed the Mediterranean from north Africa have been detained since the freeze was introduced last month.
Organisations, including the UNHCR UN refugee agency, the Council of Europe and 109 non-profit groups claim the policy flouts international law.
But the government maintains it has helped to reduce migrant numbers.
Four Sudanese nationals detained in Athens are facing deportation but a court in the capital on Monday issued a provisional order to block their return, the refugees council said on Tuesday.
The European Court of Human Rights on August 14 also ordered Greece not to deport the men.
More than 10,000 people arrived in Greece from north Africa since the start of the year — more than double the number for the whole of last year, the UNHCR said.
Some 27 per cent of the arrivals were from Sudan, which is stricken by civil war, while 47 per cent came from Egypt.
“The clear message that the country will no longer give asylum for the next three months, and that immigrants will be detained, appears to have had an effect,” Migration Minister Thanos Plevris said on August 7.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says his conservative government has been tightening immigration rules since it came to power in 2019.
Greece has been accused of illegally forcing the return of refugees or asylum seekers to Turkey but the government has rejected the complaints.
Greece’s proximity to north Africa and the Middle East has long made it central to perilous migration routes to Europe for people escaping conflict, persecution and poverty.
Source: AFP
