Govt Eyes Crack Down on Migrant Smuggling, Illegal Accommodation

The Greek government is preparing urgent legislation to outlaw apartment rentals and sublets that accommodate 20 to 30 foreign nationals – most deemed to have illegally entered the country – for between 10 and 30 euros each per overnight stay, Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis said on Thursday.

Speaking to a local television broadcaster’s current affairs program, Chrysochoidis said the government would also organize operations at individual apartments to remove occupants. He pointed to downtown Athens as the focus on the announced crackdown.

“We are now introducing a provision to prohibit all these rentals and sublets, and we are organizing operations in these apartments so that we can throw them out,” he said.

Additionally, in echoing a recent stiffening of the government’s stance vis-a-vis migrant smuggling, he said foreign nationals – irregular migrants, asylum seekers – who commit crimes and are not remanded in custody should leave Greece, including those subject to restrictive conditions pending trial.

“There are detention facilities for those awaiting deportation, under the responsibility of the Greek police. These units will be filled with those who have come here and commit crimes,” Chrysochoidis said.

Surge in Arrivals on Crete

The government’s announcement comes as the southern coast of Crete faces a sharp increase in arrivals of foreign nationals aboard “migrant boats”, with the small eastern city of Ierapetra emerging as a major entry point for craft that had disembarked from Libya.

More than 1,100 foreign nationals reached the area over a single weekend, exceeding the 880 arrivals recorded there from the beginning of the year up to that point. The latest arrivals have been added to mounting pressure on port authorities across Crete and the small island of Gavdos, south of Crete, with arrivals exceeding 18,000 since the start of the year.

The situation in Ierapetra has deteriorated particularly sharply over the past four days, with repeated arrivals of migrant boats carrying at least 60 to 70 people each, and sometimes more than 100. Some of the boats have ferried over women and minors.

On Tuesday morning, a boat carrying 60 people — 56 men, a woman and three minors — was detected 31 nautical miles south of Ierapetra. On Wednesday morning, another vessel carrying 44 people reached Stomio beach.

Minister: Surge in Arrivals from Bangladesh

In a related development this week, Migration and Asylum Minister Thanos Plevris said the government was now especially focusing on irregular migrants hailing from Bangladesh, as he presented an amendment in Parliament concerning the operation of a migrant accommodation facility near the city of Heraklion (Irakleio), the largest on the island.

Plevris said that 90% of those who arrived in Ierapetra two days earlier were Bangladeshi nationals. According to the minister, Bangladeshi citizens legally travel by plane to Gulf countries, which are a transit spot, take another plane to Libya and then board migrant boats for Crete.

He said Greece would organize returns to the south Asia country, as it has done with Egypt, announcing plans for three charter flights.

Plevris also cited a reduction in arrivals from Egypt. During the first nine months of 2025, 5,500 Egyptian nationals arrived in Greece, compared with 1,400 over the same period this year. Returns to Egypt reached 443 this year, up from fewer than 100 during the corresponding period in 2025.