New refugee crisis threatens the tourist island after the big fight

Libya

EU leaders were thrown out as illegal immigrants from Libya

Now a showdown between the EU and Libya threatens with a migration crisis as a result on the tourist island of Crete

Magnus Falkehed

Updated 00.20 | Published 2025-07-09 22.17

 

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks during a debate in parliament on migration policy. Photo: Petros Giannakouris/AP

The tourist paradise of Crete is heading into a new refugee crisis. The background is a big fight between the EU and the junta-ruled eastern Libya.

Several EU leaders came to negotiate tougher borders with the EU.

Instead, they themselves were thrown out of eastern Libya by the local authorities.

Greece is now closing all asylum opportunities for boat migrants from North Africa:

“The road to Greece is closed. This is a message to all people smugglers,” said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Over the course of a weekend, 2,000 migrants arrived on the tourist island – equivalent to a fifth of the entire year’s arrivals. A fishing boat had 520 migrants on board. This brings to mind the ship Adriana, which sank off Pylos in the summer of 2023 with around 700 people on board. Only 104 were rescued.

It was one of the worst disasters in the Mediterranean. The rusty fishing trawler came from Tobruk, in eastern Libya. There have long been suspicions about what the regime allows – or does not allow – in the form of human trafficking from Libya. The fact that it could affect the flow of migrants towards the  is the very EU reason for the EU delegation’s trip.

 

This image, provided by the Greek Coast Guard, shows a large number of people aboard a sunken fishing boat that later capsized and sank off southern Greece. Photo: AP

Treated as illegal immigrants

That is why a delegation of EU leaders wanted to travel to eastern Libya, which is ruled from Benghazi by General Khalifa Haftar, this week. Before that, they had negotiated with the internationally recognized authorities in the Libyan capital Tripoli. The Haftar junta did not like that.

When the delegation, including the EU Commissioner for Migration, Austrian Magnus Brunner, arrived together with the interior and migration ministers from Greece, Italy and Malta, they were treated as illegal immigrants.

 

General Khalifa Haftar. Photo: Ivan Sekretarev/AP

 

EU Commissioner Magnus Brunner. Photo: Claudio Bresciani/TT

Osama Hammad, the eastern Libyan prime minister, accused the EU delegation of violating Libyan law, sovereignty and international conventions. The Europeans had barely arrived before, according to the AP news agency, they were thrown out and declared persona non grata – unwelcome.

– I don’t think it was a constructive move, commented Greece’s deputy prime minister Kostis Hadzidakis on the expulsion.

 

The Greek coast guard provides water to migrants from Africa who have taken refuge in the port of Agia in Chania, on the Greek island of Crete. Photo: Giannis Angelakis/AP

In Italy, the opposition rejoiced

Hours later, Greece declared that all migrants coming from North Africa – which in practice means mainly Libya – were not welcome. In Italy, the opposition reveled in the irony of the situation, given that the government has made strict migration policies its workhorse:

“Piantedosi was sent back from Libya because he was accused of illegal entry. I was thinking of finding some ironic comment on it but it’s good enough as it is,” Matteo Orsini of the Democratic Party wrote on Facebook, according to the AP. Matteo Piantedosi is Italy’s interior minister.

In Greece, the government expressed its outrage at the state of affairs.

“This emergency situation requires emergency measures,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told parliament. No asylum applications from migrants arriving by sea from North Africa will be processed. The measure will be in place for at least three months. Instead of asylum processing, those arriving risk imprisonment.

Migrationsexperten Madelaine Seidlitz. Foto: Leif R Jansson/TT

Migration expert Madelaine Seidlitz. Photo: Leif R Jansson/TT

The expert: “You can’t do it that way”

The fact that migrants are now once again becoming human pawns in a game across the Mediterranean makes human rights lawyer and migration expert Madelaine Seidlitz furious:

“You can’t do it that way. It is in conflict with both general refugee law rules and international law rules and EU law,” she says, adding:

“It is absolutely incredible that there are no longer any reactions when states act in this way that is in conflict with all the common rules they have,” says Madelaine Seidlitz.

The basic problem, the expert believes, is that there are no safe, legal paths for these people who want to seek asylum.

Instead, they are left to the hands of criminal smugglers – sometimes in collusion with local leaders.