Greeces

Athens, Greece – Greece has drawn criticism and concern from rights groups and a United Nations office after passing what it considers to be the European Union’s strictest refugee deportation policy earlier this month.

The law was put to use on September 12, when three Turkish citizens were convicted of illegal residence and handed stiff jail sentences. Two men were given two years of imprisonment and fines of 5,000 euros ($5,870), while the third, aged 19, the youngest of the group, was handed a 10-month prison sentence.

Athens plans to test-drive the law through a likely minefield of legal challenges in the coming months. Humanitarian organisations say the measure unfairly includes children and stigmatises refugees and migrants as criminals.

Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum Thanos Plevris told Parliament on September 2 that the law was “the strictest returns policy in the whole EU” and claimed there was “a lot of interest from European countries, especially EU members, to adopt this law as a law that will force an illegal migrant to return”.

Rights groups, which are gearing up to challenge the legislation, say it far outshoots a draft Returns Regulation the European Commission wants to make binding on all member states by June 2026.

The new law has shortened deadlines and raised penalties for unauthorised residence.

For example, rejected asylum applicants will be fitted with ankle monitors and given just two weeks to remove themselves voluntarily. If they do not, they face, like the two Turkish nationals, a 5,000-euro ($5,870) fine and between two and five years of confinement in closed camps.

Children, more than a fifth of arrivals this year, are not exempt. If people wish to appeal, they have to do it in four days.

“We always claim that it’s not legal to put children in detention,” said Federica Toscano from Save the Children. The law is “not aligned with the [UN] Convention on the Rights of the Child”, and is “absolutely challengeable”.

The Greek Ombudsman, an independent authority monitoring public services, also objected to the law’s maximum reprieve of 60 days, down from 120, so children can complete their school year.

The Ombudsman suggested the law sets out to prove the proposition that all undocumented people are criminals.

Ankle monitors, it said, which are not mentioned in the draft Returns Regulation, “deepen the view of migrants as criminals and put their treatment on a par with that reserved for indictees, convicts and prisoners on leave”.

“Refugees are entitled to effective access to international protection without punishment for violating migration policy,” says the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Under the Geneva Convention, “the quest for asylum … is not a criminal offence, but a human right”.

The EU approves about 45 percent of asylum applications on average.

Of the remainder, 90 percent end up staying on European soil because there is no effective policy to return them, say European officials.

“Without a returns policy, no migration policy has any meaning,” said Greece’s then-migration minister, Makis Voridis, presenting the new proposals in Parliament’s European Affairs Committee on May 15.

Irregular entry into the country has been raised to a felony. Anyone arriving without documents can be detained for two years, up from 18 months.

A provision that legalises anyone after seven years of undocumented residence is being abolished.

Greece’s predicament

Plevris has defended the hardened law, arguing that Greece guards external EU borders.

“It’s easy to defend borders when there’s three or four countries people have to cross to get to you. Compare us to other first reception countries,” he said.

Since 2015, Greece has been the arrival point of 46 percent of more than 2.8 million undocumented people entering Europe, according to UNHCR.

Many have moved on to other EU member states, but because of EU rules, rejected asylum seekers or asylum recipients who lose their protected status would be returned to their country of arrival in the EU for deportation.

Greek officials admit they do not expect refugees and migrants to spend five years in detention. The draconian rules, they say, are designed to force them to return voluntarily once they are convicted.

That is because it is legally difficult to deport anyone forcibly.

The law has a second aim – to deter what Greece views as so-called economic migrants travelling to Europe when there are Geneva Convention signatories closer to home.

“It’s a massive programme that costs a lot of money and involves a whole web of private actors. So I think that would be pretty difficult to set up,” said Hope Barker, who works for the Global Strategic Communications Council, a nongovernmental group seeking to influence environmental and migration policy.

Greece’s Union of Administrative Judges objected that the law did not define flight risk, leaving incarceration decisions to the discretion of the police. The law “needs to provide a comprehensive list of criteria, not an indicative one”, it said.

The Council of Bar Associations of Greece also weighed in with objections to tightened deadlines for appeal and the criminalisation of undocumented entry.

“Danger to life and limb vastly outranks whatever law is broken by entering Greece illegally,” it said.

The EU’s guinea pig?

Repeatedly, these bodies pointed out, the new law violates the existing EU Returns Regulation, which dates back to 2008, but observers of EU migration policy say the European Commission is deliberately allowing Greece to push the boundaries.

“Greece has become something of a testing ground for many EU measures, especially on the Greek islands,” Amnesty International’s Olivia Sundberg told Al Jazeera, citing the Closed Controlled Access Centres built to house thousands of asylum seekers.

“In a lot of ways, Greece is a place that has tested things out before they became EU law, and if they worked well, they were carried over into [EU] directives,” she said.

The EU is now looking for ways to implement returns.

“There is this whole push for what they call ‘innovative solutions’,” said Barker. “So one of these is obviously return hubs in third countries, another is getting people to sign up to voluntary returns,” she told Al Jazeera.

Italy has been testing third-country hubs through a deal with Albania, but Italian courts have ordered some of the asylum seekers sent there for processing returned to Italy.

Greece’s law casts a wider net, suggesting returnees should seek protection in any safe country closer to their country of origin.

But Greece’s Ombudsman has objected to this.

Passing the burden “allows a return process to a country the returnee doesn’t come from, or hasn’t passed through and has no connection to, except that it is geographically close to his country of origin. In this case, it’s no longer a ‘returns’ procedure but a ‘displacement’ procedure”, the Ombudsman said.

Some observers say Europe is in danger of falling short of its own human rights charter.

“Migration is becoming a rule of law issue rather than an implementation of law issue,” said Amnesty’s Sundberg.

Others point out that Europe is an ageing continent in need of more workers to sustain its tax base and social security systems in the coming decades.

“How are we going to create an environment of reception of the people we need, when we take this type of measure?” asked Lefteris Papayiannakis, who heads the Greek Council for Refugees, a legal aid charity. “If you can’t attract them, what’s your next move?”

Besides, he said, the measures exude desperation.

“You’re creating an impression now that you’re not in control. But if we compare the situation now with 2015, or the [flight of] Ukrainians in 2022, it’s a completely different situation,” Papayiannakis said.

“How can you justify being up in arms now about a very small number of migrants compared to the number … you’re going to need?”

Greece has suspended processing of asylum applications from people arriving by sea from North Africa since July.

More than 120 refugees and migrants have been intercepted off the island of Crete, according to Greek authorities, the latest in a series of arrivals of people making perilous journeys to Europe from North Africa despite a suspension of asylum claims and a concerted push for tougher detention rules.

Two boats, carrying 58 and 68 people and believed to have departed from Libya, were stopped on Monday, and their passengers were placed under guard at temporary shelters. More than 100 other refugees and migrants arrived on Crete over the weekend after strong winds eased.

Greece’s conservative government last month suspended all asylum claims for migrants arriving by sea from North Africa, a move it argued helped deter crossings that peaked in July at more than 2,500 in a single week.

The ban passed in parliament amid a surge in asylum seekers reaching Crete and after talks with Libya’s Benghazi-based government to stem the flow were cancelled acrimoniously in July.

It also marked a further hardening of Greece’s stance towards refugees and migrants under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s government, which has built a fence at its northern land borders and boosted sea patrols since it came to power in 2019.

The government remains at odds with regional authorities in Crete over a plan to build a permanent transit facility on the island. It is preparing draft legislation that would mandate imprisonment for people whose asylum claims are denied and require ankle monitors during a 30-day compliance period before deportation.

Earlier this month, at least 26 people died after two boats sank off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

That disaster, also involving people travelling from Libya, was the latest to befall refugees and migrants making the perilous Mediterranean crossing from Africa to Europe.

Rights groups and United Nations agencies have also documented systematic abuse against refugees and migrants in Libya, including torture, rape and extortion. In February, Libyan authorities uncovered nearly 50 bodies from two mass graves in the country’s southeastern desert, in the latest horror involving people seeking to make it to Europe through the North African country.

Since the beginning of this year, 675 people have died in the central Mediterranean while trying to make the crossing, Filippo Ungaro, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Italy, recently said.

The ancient Lindos Acropolis in Rhodes is one of the most popular tourist destinations on the island — but one local’s tip will help you avoid the crowds

Cruising along the twisting coast of Rhodes towards Lindos, with the breeze wafting through the car on a scorching June day, I was buzzing with anticipation for the day’s plans. My family and I were soaking up the sun in Greece, eager to explore the ancient Lindos Acropolis — a site brimming with history, including the Doric Temple of Athena Lindia, the Castle of the Knights of St John, an amphitheatre, and staggering views across the sea.

Yet, as we turned the bend and caught sight of the mountain crowned by the Acropolis, my excitement waned at a concerning sight. Through the gaps of the distant columns, I spotted tiny black specks weaving around them, packed so densely they seemed to merge into one.

“Is that… people?” I queried, half in disbelief, to which my family responded with reassurances that it simply couldn’t be — there were far too many of them.

But as is often the case, my instincts were spot on. Nearing the mountain, the reality became clear: a snaking queue of visitors stretched down the path to the Acropolis, motionless.

The historic site was swarming with tourists, disgorged en masse from the multitude of coaches parked below. It was an ominous sign indeed, reports the Express.

Undeterred, we sought out a parking spot to give it a go, but the moment we stepped into the old town, it was apparent our efforts would be futile.

The streets were chock-a-block with people, prompting us to retreat to our car. However, on our way out, we paused for a chat with the ticket operator, who revealed his clever trick for avoiding the throngs.

He suggested that if we returned around 5pm, the tourist rush would have subsided, and with the Acropolis open until 7:30pm, there’d be ample time for exploration.

Intrigued, we decided to test his theory the next day and, as it turned out, he was spot on.

We arrived at the Acropolis at 6pm, after a leisurely day of sunbathing on the beach, to find the town considerably quieter.

While there were still tourists meandering through the streets, by the time we ascended the mountain to the Acropolis, the crowds had largely dispersed, leaving only about 20 people strolling around the grounds.

The vastness of the space meant it didn’t feel congested at all, and compared to the previous day’s view from afar, it was a striking contrast. The vistas were breathtaking, and, visiting later in the day, the summer heat, though still hot, was more bearable.

We didn’t feel rushed either; the climb to the Acropolis took about 15 minutes, leaving plenty of time to drink in the sights.

With so few people around, our photos turned out much better; the near-empty Acropolis allowed us to fully appreciate its grandeur.

If you’re planning a trip to Rhodes, visiting the Acropolis is an absolute must. To avoid the throngs of tourists, we recommend going in the evening, just as we did.

No casualties in Greece as fires in southern Crete and the port of Rafina are put out; two die after blaze in western Turkiye.

A wildfire on the Greek island of Crete that forced the evacuation of 5,000 people has been extinguished, officials say.

Some 230 firefighters and six helicopters worked at the scene near the resort town of Ierapetra, where residents had to leave their homes and visitors their accommodation on Wednesday evening.

Reporting from the nearby village of Agia Fotia, Al Jazeera’s John Psaropoulos said there was “no active fire front” by Friday morning. Still, he added, helicopters were operating in the area to ensure there were no flare-ups.

The fire left forest trees and some olive trees burned but caused no casualties. Two local MPs told Al Jazeera efforts were under way for the return of the people who were evacuated after the blaze broke out.

Elsewhere in mainland Greece, a fire fanned by strong winds that erupted near the port town of Rafina, about 30km (18 miles) east of the capital, Athens, was brought under control on Thursday evening, authorities said.

However, firefighting crews remained on alert as winds remained strong.

The fire, which led to the evacuation of 300 people, destroyed a few houses and vehicles, local mayor Dimitris Markou told public broadcaster ERT.

It also disrupted ferries to and from tourist islands in the western Aegean Sea.

Greece has so far been spared the heatwave roasting parts of Europe, particularly Spain, Portugal and France. But starting this weekend, temperatures will rise and reach up to 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas of the country.

Two dead in Turkiye

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Turkiye, a local forestry worker was killed while trying to contain a fire near the western town of Odemis, while an 81-year-old resident died from smoke inhalation, authorities said.

These were the first deaths in a series of wildfires that have forced thousands of people to flee.

Separately, hundreds of firefighters, supported by aircraft and helicopters, were deployed to battle a wildfire near the Aegean coastal town of Cesme, a popular vacation destination about 190km (120 miles) west of Odemis.

That fire, which began on Wednesday, forced the evacuation of three neighbourhoods and led to road closures. Television footage showed flames racing through dry vegetation on both sides of a highway.

Over the past week, Turkiye has battled hundreds of wildfires fuelled by strong winds, extreme heat and low humidity.

The blazes have damaged or destroyed about 200 homes.

Hot dry weather is not unusual for Greece and Turkiye at this time of year. Devastating summer wildfires are common in both countries, with experts warning that climate change is intensifying conditions.

The Greek island of Symi is filled with pretty houses, epic beaches, and crystal-clear waters, but it has not seen the same visitor numbers as the likes of Crete, Santorini, Mykonos and Corfu

Greece is home to dozens of beautiful islands that attract millions of tourists annually. Among the most frequented are Santorini, Crete, Naxos, Mykonos and Corfu. However, while some enjoy immense popularity, there are others that despite their own charm, haven’t seen the same vast numbers of visitors.

Symi, located off the west coast of Greece and east of Tilos, is one of the most picturesque in the region. Part of the Dodecanese island group, it’s best known for its charming houses, stunning beaches and close proximity to the popular and significantly larger Greek island of Rhodes located to its south east.

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According to Visit Greece, the main town shares its name with the island it resides on. Interestingly, the town of Symi is reportedly divided into two parts, Gialos and Chorio.

Gialos is the section of the town nearest to the harbour and Chorio, meaning village, sprawls across the closest hillside, reports the Express.

Despite its small size, there’s a wealth of activities and attractions for visitors to engage with. These include visiting the local clock tower known as the Roloi, the statue of fisher boy Michalaki, the town hall, and the Naval Museum. Moreover, thousands of visitors make the journey to the Agios Ioannis, which serves as the main church of the town.

Access to Symi is only possible by boats and ferries after landing in mainland Greece. Travel website Greeka stated that it’s possible to reach the island via Athens and its Piraeus port.

Symi, like many other Greek islands, can get scorching hot during the summer months, with temperatures averaging around 26C in June and 28C in July and August.

These sweltering temperatures make it ideal weather for lounging on the beach, soaking up the sun’s rays and cooling off in the sea. As a result, spots like Saint George Bay and Nanou Beach have garnered rave reviews on TripAdvisor.

On Saint George Bay, Stavros L raved: “A must if you visit Symi. Amazing blue water and the surrounding cliffs create a unique atmosphere, quite crowded during July/August but worth it.”

Fellow user Hills A was equally impressed with Nanou Beach, saying: “Arrived at Nanou beach via our hired boat from Symi Coral Rent a Boat in Pedi Beach…our favourite bay in Symi.

“Crystal clear water, turquoise blue, perfect for snorkelling! The taverna there has delicious and fresh cuisine, plus friendly goats! Definitely going back soon!”