ATHENS — As Greece grapples with a rising number of refugees and migrants arriving at its shores, the country's conservative government is pushing for tougher asylum legislation.

In the early hours of Friday, the Greek parliament voted in favor of a controversial bill introducing sweeping changes to the national asylum system, including cutting some options for appeal and facilitating the deportation of failed asylum seekers. The governing New Democracy party and the Socialist “Movement of Change” party backed the new law.

Proponents say the legislation will streamline and shorten the asylum process, but international organizations — including the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) — warn that it will reduce safeguards for people seeking international protection.

Michalis Chrysochoidis, the minister for citizen protection, told POLITICO the new rules are "simply a precise adoption and implementation of the European [asylum] directive and the Union's asylum legislation."

He added: "It aims to achieve speeding up asylum procedures, respect by asylum seekers of the country's laws and the rules set by the authorities, respect of their human rights and cooperation between them and the Greek authorities.”

The cases of unaccompanied minors and other vulnerable asylum seekers will be subject to accelerated procedures, which aid groups say lack the necessary safeguards.

Critics, however, say the procedural changes would impede access to asylum and compromise the right of appeal.

Philippe Leclerc, UNHCR's representative in Greece, said ahead of the passage of the bill that it “introduces stringent procedural requirements and formalities which an asylum seeker cannot reasonably be expected to fulfill."

He warned the new legislation "may not be in compliance with" European law, adding that the reform introduces unreasonable obstacles to receiving international protection.

“It puts an excessive burden on asylum seekers and focuses on punitive measures,” Leclerc said. “For instance, if [applicants] do not observe certain procedural formalities, their asylum claim will be considered implicitly withdrawn and rejected, without being examined on substance."

He added: "In some circumstances, it will be so difficult to appeal against a rejection that the right to an effective remedy, enshrined in international and EU law, will be seriously compromised."

Controversial reforms

Refugee advocates are also concerned the new law allows for a longer period of detention — enabling authorities to detain asylum seekers for as long as 18 months, up from three months — and warn that some provisions may severely limit the right to family unity.

The cases of unaccompanied minors and other vulnerable asylum seekers will be subject to accelerated procedures, which aid groups say lack the necessary safeguards. In addition, post-traumatic stress disorder will no longer qualify an applicant for "vulnerable" status.

The government has already tightened access to some benefits for asylum seekers. One of its first steps after winning this summer's general election was to cancel legislation that granted unrestricted access to Greece's public health system to foreigners, including asylum seekers, by providing them with a social security number.

Having a social security number also meant asylum seekers were able to search for and take up a job under the same legal conditions as citizens and residents in Greece.

Villagers in northern Greece blocked asylum seekers from moving into local hotels by throwing rocks at the buses carrying them.

“Granting a social security number to everyone and giving them access to the labor market was an unbearable luxury,” said Chrysochoidis, the minister.

But he said asylum seekers would still be able to access health care services simply by showing their documents. Moreover, he added, they would be able to start looking for a job after six months in Greece if their asylum application had not already been rejected.

Rising arrival numbers

The asylum reform comes as Greece has once again become Europe's main entry point for migrants and refugees crossing the Mediterranean.

In 2015, at the height of the European refugee crisis, hundreds of thousands crossed the Aegean Sea, but numbers dropped drastically following the EU-Turkey migration agreement in March 2016. In all of 2018, UNHCR in Greece counted about 50,000 arrivals.

But in the first 10 months of this year, more than 55,000 people have arrived in Greece, with most traveling via Turkey and the Aegean Sea to its easternmost islands. That's more than the arrivals in Italy and Spain combined, which together saw around 35,000 people arrive in the same time period.

Amid the spike in numbers — sea arrivals surged past 10,000 in September for the first time since 2016 — conditions on Greece's islands have deteriorated sharply.

Nearly 35,000 people are currently living in squalid conditions in the islands' overflowing camps, which are designed to house only about a third of that number.

The government wants to alleviate the situation on the islands by moving some 20,000 people to the mainland by the end of this year, housing one half in hotels and apartments and transferring the other half into tents within unused military or industrial facilities.

These plans, however, have been met with opposition from local authorities and hoteliers. And among the Greek public, too, the prospect of asylum seekers settling on the mainland has prompted protests.

Last week, villagers in northern Greece blocked asylum seekers from moving into local hotels by throwing rocks at the buses carrying them, forcing the authorities to look for an alternative place to house them. Videos on social media earlier this month showed locals and city council members in a town hall meeting in an affluent Athens suburb reacting with anger and contempt to the idea of hosting asylum seekers.

For Gabriel Sakellaridis, Amnesty International's executive director in Greece, the new asylum law is a reflection of a growing "toxic" climate in the country.

"The toxicity in public narrative and the cultivation of a xenophobic climate identifying people coming to our country as 'invaders' is an exceptionally negative development," he said during a press conference earlier this week.

Chrysochoidis, meanwhile, blames Turkey and the inaction of Greece's fellow EU members.

“Local communities are afraid and react, because they realize that Greece is alone on this issue. The problem continues unabated and the country cannot resist,” he said.

He urged other EU states to take in a share of asylum seekers, echoing Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' demand for an end to voluntary burden-sharing within the bloc.

“Europe has rules," Chrysochoidis said. "If its members don't follow them, but act only voluntarily, then this Union simply cannot move forward."