Criminalisation of “illegal stay” in Greece puts almost 300 people behind bars
Statistics on the implementation of the September 2025 reform
The nefarious effects of the unfair and excessive penal sanctions for “illegal” entry, exit and stay offences enacted by Greece in a September reform breaching the fundamental right to asylum and European Union law are confirmed by official statistics.
Following an amendment introduced in September 2025, Greek law punishes the offences of illegal entry, exit and stay by a term of imprisonment of at least two years. The imprisonment sentence may only be suspended if the person declares their intention to immediately leave the territory. Even where the sentence is suspended, convicted persons continue to be detained in prisons or in pre-removal detention centres of the Hellenic Police until they depart from Greece.
Greek prosecutors charged more than 800 people based on the new provisions from the entry into force of the reform until the end of 2025. Most prosecutions concerned “illegal entry” and “illegal stay” offences. The overwhelming majority of prosecutions led to convictions in court.
The process of collection of the above data regrettably corroborates constant gaps in the quality of Greek court statistics. The data supplied by the Ministry of Justice on prosecutions disaggregated by prosecution service present several gaps and contradictions that hamper any accurate understanding of the cases processed by each prosecutor’s office. For instance, zero figures are reported for prosecutions and rulings in the Athens Prosecutor’s Office, while two different tables with diverging figures are reported for the Tripoli Prosecutor’s Office.
The implementation of the new rules and rise in criminal proceedings on Crete merit particular consideration. Ministry of Justice data refer to 200 cases for illegal entry launched by the Chania and Heraklion Prosecutors’ Offices. The latter also launched proceedings for illegal exit and stay.
Almost 300 people remained deprived of their liberty after a conviction for illegal entry, exit or stay offences at the end of last year. Of those, 154 served a prison sentence in prisons and 131 were detained in pre-removal detention centres after expressing their intention to immediately depart from Greece.
The main countries of origin of people deprived of their liberty based on the new Greek criminal provisions include Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. Nationals of these countries largely receive international protection in Greece. According to official statistics of the Asylum Service for 2025, the recognition rate of asylum applications processed on the merits stood at 99.8% for Afghanistan, 90.7% for Syria and 62.3% for Iraq.
