• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Monday, February 6, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Rights Groups Condemn Controversial New Greek Migration Law

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
11/01/19
in Featured, Refugees, World
Migrants and refugees look on after minor clashes with Greek policemen occurred at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece, March 2016

Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees are stuck in Greece and hope to claim asylum in the EU. Photo: Marko Djurica, Reuters.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Greece on Friday approved a law tightening asylum procedures that has been widely criticized by rights groups as harmful to the interests of migrants.

The government says the new rules will allow it to focus on swiftly identifying refugees that need protection, instead of being bogged down by thousands of applications by economic migrants which it says are not entitled to asylum.

“These adjustments establish a compact law on international protection,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told lawmakers before the bill was approved by his conservative party majority, with support from the socialists.

Mitsotakis said Greece’s asylum system till now “was in a state of prolonged paralysis” with nearly 70,000 pending requests.

“It gave the signal that people could come to Greece and stay for unspecified periods of time, without any scrutiny,” said the conservative PM who was elected in July on promises to bolster border patrols at land and sea.

“This law … sends a clear message: enough with those who attempt to enter and remain in our country whilst knowing that they are not entitled to asylum,” he said.

Human rights groups have strongly criticized the bill, saying it introduces stricter rules for receiving asylum seekers, delays access to the right to work, narrows the definition of family, and imposes more burdens on torture victims in being recognized as such.

The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic also noted Thursday that the draft she had seen, during a five-day visit to Greece and talks with officials, “raises concerns from a human rights perspective.”

Greece is facing its highest migrant arrival levels in the past three years, with hundreds of asylum-seekers arriving daily from neighboring Turkey.

After Mitsotakis earlier this month said that refugees and economic migrants are “besieging” Europe, rights groups warned the government against using language that incites intolerance.

On Thursday, Greece’s minister for police Michalis Chrysohoidis said that unless Greece was adequately prepared, the migration wave “will roll over us.”

There has already been sporadic opposition from local towns to efforts by the government to relocate asylum-seekers from badly overcrowded camps on Greek islands facing Turkey.

On Thursday, Mijatovic warned that the migrants confined to the squalid camps are “on the edge of catastrophe,” adding that it’s an “unacceptable situation.”


More on the Subject 

Migrants on Greek Islands ‘on Edge of Catastrophe:’ Council of Europe

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Greek Immigration Minister Notis Mitarachi
Refugees

Greece Denies Turkey Claims Over Six Migrants Killed at Sea

by Staff Writer
September 14, 2022
Greece migrants
Refugees

EU Border Agency ‘Covered Up’ Greece’s Illegal Migrant Pushbacks

by Staff Writer
July 28, 2022
Greece NGOs
Democracy at Risk

‘Like Pushing a Rock’: NGOs Decry Uphill Battle for Legitimacy in Greece

by Staff Writer
December 21, 2021
Moria migrant camp which was destroyed in a fire in 2020 on the Greek Aegean island of Lesbos.
Refugees

Pregnant Migrant Sets Herself on Fire in Greek Camp

by Staff Writer
February 24, 2021
Rescuers search for survivors in rubble
World

14 Dead, Buildings Collapse as Major Quake Hits Turkey, Greece

by Staff Writer
October 30, 2020
Refugees in the Mediterranean
Featured

EU Border Agency Investigates ‘Pushback’ Claims

by Staff Writer
October 27, 2020
Next Post
The body of a woman shot dead near her house in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico on Aug. 1, 2018

Atrocities and Impunity in Mexico: Too Hot to Handle for the ICC?

Braving  Live Fire and Tear Gas, Thousands Protest Across Iraq

Iraq Protests Enter Second Month, Defying Pledges of Reform

Recommended

Syrian rescuers and civilians search for victims and survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building, in the rebel-held northern countryside of Syria's Idlib province on the border with Turkey, early on February 6, 2023. Syrian rescuers (White Helmets) and civilians search for victims and survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building

Quake Kills Over 1,200 Across Turkey, Syria

February 6, 2023
Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
A supporter of nurses' strike and NHS holds a placard

UK Faces Fresh Mass Strikes as Wage Talks Derail

February 1, 2023
Israeli security forces in Jerusalem

Palestinian Gunman Kills 7 in East Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

January 30, 2023
The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, during an announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on January 23, 2020

‘Doomsday Clock’ Moves Closest Ever to Midnight

January 25, 2023
Police work near the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California

California Lunar New Year Mass Shooter Dead, Motive Unclear: Police

January 23, 2023

Opinion

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Commuters waiting for buses in Metro Manila. Philippines

Eight Billion and Counting…

November 29, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests

Imagining a Free Iran

October 24, 2022
Vladimir Putin

How 18th Century International Law Clarifies the Situation in Ukraine

September 29, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Falling for Putin

September 15, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post