Migrants who commit criminal offenses while they are being held inside detention centers will face accelerated deportation procedures, Migration Minister Thanos Plevris said Thursday.
The comment came after a riot broke out late Wednesday at a detention center in northern Greece, leaving three police officers injured and 30 migrants arrested, according to the authorities.
“According to the new law we passed recently, for those who do not have a refugee profile, the process is simple: expedited asylum examination, rejection, deportation. Until then, detention. This is their daily life and now that they realize it, they are reacting,” Plevris said in a post on his account on social media platform X.
“No tolerance for illegal immigration,” he added.
The facility in Sintiki where the unrest erupted was holding about 750 migrants of various nationalities, police said. According to the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum, the riot is linked to the announcement that their asylum is being rejected and that they will remain detained until their deportation.
Greece this summer introduced one of Europe’s toughest migration regimes, allowing detention for up to 24 months and imposing prison terms of two to five years for illegal entry or stay. Under the stricter laws, migrants denied asylum face mandatory jail sentences.
Wednesday’s clashes came a day after three migrants died and 55 were rescued near the southern island of Crete when a boat carrying them from Libya sank. Two of the rescued migrants, both from Sudan, were arrested on smuggling charges.