The former Greek foreign minister has criticised the government’s plan to deploy warships off the coast of Libya to prevent migrants from reaching Greece.
“There is international humanitarian law, and the expulsion of migrants is illegal,” Dimitris Avramopoulos, who also served as European Commissioner for Migration, said in an interview with ActionTV 24 on Friday.
“I don’t know if deploying the fleet will be effective. If you intercept a boat and there is an accident, the country will be condemned,” he added. Avramopoulos recalled the 2023 shipwreck off the coast of the Peloponnese, in which an estimated 560 migrants drowned. “If there is another Pylos, we will be held accountable,” he warned.
Instead, he said, the government should focus on setting up specialised reception centres where asylum applications can be processed systematically.
On Wednesday, Greek authorities said they would send two military ships and a support vessel to the Libyan coast.
The move is intended to help stem the flow of migrants, which has increased in recent months. According to the UNHCR, approximately 5,700 illegal asylum seekers have arrived in Crete and the nearby island of Gavdos from Libya since January.
Over the past week, more than 800 migrants have attempted to reach the southern Greek islands. About 500 of those who have arrived are currently housed in tents on a football field in Crete. The authorities are trying to find a more suitable place where people can wait to be sent to the mainland.
The Greek PM told the country’s president that the problem of increased migration had been discussed at a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council and that the situation was alarming. The minister did not disclose details of the role of military vessels or explain what they would do. However, he said they would act in coordination with the Libyan authorities and European forces present in the region. Migrants from the Middle East and North Africa, including war-torn Sudan, are mainly fleeing from Libya to the Greek islands.
