Greece has announced plans to build three new migration facilities on the southern island of Crete after record numbers of migrants arrived there in the summer of 2025.
During parliamentary proceedings at the start of February, Greek Migration Minister Thanos Plevris introduced an amendment to the country’s migration bill — which will be voted on later in the week and is widely expected to pass — which will see the creation of three new migration centers on Crete.
One of the three planned will be a permanent structure on what is Greece’s largest island, with two additional temporary migrant detention centers also slated to be built in the capital, Heraklion, and the town of Chania.
New migrant centers in Crete to cope with increased inflow
Plevris said the aim of building the new structures was to get a grip on increased migration movements to the island as witnessed in the course of 2025, when record numbers of migrant boat arrivals where logged on the island and its small sister island of Gavdos.
Plevris explained the necessity for a shift in policy in Crete by highlighting a major change in migration movements that became evident in 2025: While up to 2024, nearly 80 percent of migrants tended to arrive on smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea after departing from Turkey — with only 8 percent actually arriving in the southern island of Crete, the number of arrival in Crete had shot up in 2025 to making up almost half of all migrant arrival on Greek soil.
Nearly all people who arrive on Crete using irregular means of migration depart from the coast of Libya, overwhelming towns throughout Crete and the resources available to take care of migrants.
To get on top of the situation, Greece even opted to stop the processing of asylum claims in all cases related to Crete for three months in the summer of 2025, attracting criticism from various human rights groups with allegations of deliberately leaving migrants in a state of legal limbo.
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