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 beginning 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. This will see the establishment 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 on 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 were logged on the island and its small sister island of Gavdos.
Plevris explained the necessity for a shift in policy on Crete by highlighting a major change in migration movements that became evident in 2025. 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 on the southern island of Crete. The number of arrivals on Crete had shot up in 2025 to making up almost half of all migrant arrivals on Greek soil.
Nearly all who arrive to 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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