Greece, Flooded with Migrants, Tightens Restrictions

Greece has been inundated with migrants, almost all of them Muslims, some from as far away as Pakistan and Bangladesh, falsely claiming to be “asylum seekers,” when they are merely economic migrants, determined to batten on all the benefits the generous welfare states of Western Europe provide, including greatly subsidized or free housing, free medical care, free education including vocational training and language classes, family allowances, and more, and thereby better their lot. The Greek government — Greece is not a rich country — has been spending billions each year on these economic migrants. But now it has had enough, and is tightening up its policies toward migrants. More on these new policies can be found here: “Greece Finds Over Half of Asylum Seekers Claiming To Be Minors Are Adults,” by Zolta Győri, European Conservative, November 12, 2025:

Greece’s new age verification system found that the majority of asylum seekers are lying about their age, claiming to be minors, Migration and Asylum Minister Thanos Plevris said on Tuesday, November 12th.

Plevris stated that out of 104 cases reviewed since late August, 59 individuals were determined to be over 18. “The repercussions for those who filed a false statement are self-evident,” he said.

The new, stricter verification process requires age determination to be completed “once and on the same day” using three methods: a medical evaluation of physical development, a psychosocial assessment, and an X-ray of the applicant’s left wrist to assess skeletal maturity. Officials say the system is designed to prevent adults from posing as minors to gain preferential legal protections.

The new verification procedures are one part of a wider tightening of Greece’s migration policy launched earlier this year. In July, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a temporary suspension of asylum applications for immigrants arriving by sea from North Africa, citing national security concerns and rising arrivals on Crete and the nearby island of Gavdos.

The “national security concerns” is a reference to Muslims — they are the only ones arriving in boats that leave from Libya — who, once they are in Greece, engage in criminal activities to a much greater degree than do the native Greeks, and furthermore, some are also potential terrorists, ready to attack Israeli and Western targets in Greece.

“The Greek government has decided to inform the European Commission that it is proceeding with the suspension of asylum application examinations for three months for those arriving in Greece from North Africa by sea,” Mitsotakis told parliament. He added that those entering the country illegally “will be arrested and detained.”

This three-month suspension of all asylum examinations and thus of asylum claims being granted is a promising start. Prime Minister Mitsotakis wants to see how this pilot program works out. Will the incidence of crime go down? Will the expensive programs to support asylum seekers be reduced pari passu with the decrease in the granting of asylum seeker status? If this three-month policy proves a success by cutting down on government expenses and on crimes committed by Muslim migrants, then it is almost certain to be extended, perhaps indefinitely.

In August, the government announced plans to fit rejected asylum applicants with electronic ankle bracelets to track their movements during the 30-day period before deportation, a measure intended to ensure removals are carried out efficiently.

The ankle bracelets allow the government to track every move of those rejected asylum seekers who will no longer be able to hide from the authorities, as so many in the past have done by simply not showing up for deportation, knowing they can hide from the authorities for a very long time. That laxity is now over.

The tightening continued into September, when Greece’s parliament enacted strict new immigration legislation further hardening its stance toward rejected asylum seekers. The law, approved on September 3rd, introduced prolonged detention and steep fines for illegal entry while accelerating returns to countries of origin. Undocumented migrants arriving from EU-designated safe countries and denied asylum must now choose between voluntary return or mandatory detention for up to 24 months and fines reaching €10,000….

As of September, many new measures have been passed in Greece to discourage would-be asylum seekers. Illegal migrants will now be imprisoned and given steep fines. Their deportation orders will be more quickly implemented. No more will those who have been ordered to deport be able to hang around for months or even years, secure in the knowledge that the Greek government won’t be enforcing those orders. Now it will.

More fencing along Greece’s land border in the north, more sea patrols to interdict people-smugglers’ boats, have now prevented many illegal migrants from entering the country. Those who are seized on land or sea are now being quickly deported, some all the way back to Pakistan and Bangladesh.

In October, the government announced a nearly 30% reduction in asylum-related spending, cutting the annual budget from €400 million to €288 million. Rent subsidies for refugees will be phased out, direct cash payments halved, and funds redirected toward job training and Greek-language instruction.

The sharp decrease in spending on “asylum seekers” is a result of several factors. First, the number of those being granted asylum status has gone down; the government is no longer willing to grant it quite so easily to those who make the request. Now the Greeks want to know precisely the reasons why these people requesting asylum believe they have a “well-founded fear of persecution.” Second, the government has slashed rent subsidies for “asylum seekers,” in an attempt to force them to work. Too many Muslims in the past have been in no hurry to be employed; now, whether they like it or not, they will have to be. Direct payments made to them will now be cut in half, and the money saved on that will instead be spent on job training and language lessons that will make them more employable. The entire emphasis will be on cutting down on their welfare benefits and providing them, instead, with job training. Many of those asylum seekers, no longer being supported so generously, and not eager to work at the the minimum-wage jobs which are likely to be the only ones they will qualify for, may decide to return home.

The Greek government’s plan is a good start. It cuts down on the benefits that these economic migrants thought would be theirs for the asking. It also makes clear that even these reduced benefits will be limited in time, as the government will provide job training in the expectation that these migrants will make every effort to find jobs, rather than continue to live on the government dole. And if they don’t find jobs, the government itself could be the employer of last resort, providing them with ill-paid and lowly jobs that may lead those greatly disappointed economic migrants to instead return home. It’s an outcome the Greek people would welcome.