The situation with the flow of illegal immigrants to Crete from Libya has improved as, according to the Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Thanos Plevris, after the adoption of the amendment for the suspension of the examination of asylum applications, “in 25 days, 1/3 of the people who arrived in the first 8 days of July have arrived on the island”

“In the first week of July when there was no decision to suspend asylum in 8 days (from 1-9 July) 2462 entered. Since then, less than 900 have entered and 500 in the first days after the amendment was passed,” Plevris told MEGA.

According to him, this change is due to “3 factors:

1. There was a strong diplomacy and by the foreign minister to cooperate with the Libyan authorities and at this moment it seems to be better

2. There has been a clear message. In the first week of pressured flows there were mobile messages that travel to Greece was safe and the border was open. Those who entered after the amendment are not guests, they are detained in prison conditions and so the message was sent

3. The weather but this is subsidiary because in this period there were at least 10-15 days of summer weather”.

“We are not complacent because the circuits may readjust their tactics and we have to be prepared. Inflows are still there but they have been limited. According to sources from Libya there are 3 million people on the country’s shores and a similar number in Egypt. If we allowed a flow of 1,000 a day towards Crete, this would have the characteristics of an invasion,” the Minister of Immigration and Asylum added.

As he explained “we respect the right of asylum to those who are entitled to it but from the Libyan corridor 60% of those coming from Libya were from safe countries that do not warrant asylum and 90% were men aged 18-30, only 10% were children and women. Basically we are talking about economic migrants who want to enter Europe illegally.”

As he pointed out, “when the other person has applied for asylum whether or not they are eligible, there is a 6-month waiting process for deportation. Six months with flows of 1,000 people was an unmanageable situation. As soon as we don’t consider asylum automatically the administrative detention and the deportation paper comes out.”

Referring to the part of returns, he said that “it is the most difficult for all the countries in Europe. We will start returns to safe countries like Egypt, Bangladesh or Pakistan.”

He finally announced that “at the end of August the new bill will be passed which will provide for anyone who is refused asylum either imprisonment for 2-5 years without parole or payment or advocate for return,” adding that “in the next two months we will have the places for migrants in Crete and the funding from the EU.”