Crete’s Empty Detention Sites Highlight Tensions Over the EU Migration Pact

People arriving on Crete are being held in makeshift sites that lack basic services. The abandoned Kitrenosis industrial complex—once a temporary shelter for more than 500 people in December 2025—has remained empty, with only remnants of bedding visible. Similar sites at the former Agia exhibition centre and the refrigerated storage unit in Heraklion’s port are also vacant as of July 2026, a lull attributed to adverse weather slowing arrivals. The independent Refugee Support Aegean reports roughly 8,500 arrivals in the first half of 2026, indicating that the Libya-to-Crete route remains active.

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Refugee Support Aegean recorded more than 5,000 landings in 2024 and over 20,000 in 2025, making Crete Greece’s primary entry point. The Asylum Information Database and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles confirm that the route is now well-established, even as nationwide arrivals fell 21 % from 2024 to 2025. The EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact, adopted in 2024, introduces fast-track border procedures, expanded detention and greater reliance on third-country cooperation.

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In July 2025 the Greek Parliament approved a three-month suspension of asylum claims for arrivals from North-African coasts, a move Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis framed as an “emergency.” On June 9 2026 the Parliament approved a legislative package transposing the Pact, emphasizing rapid procedures and deportations. The European Commission gave Greece a positive assessment for its implementation speed, noting operational readiness on Crete’s shores. Since the Pact took effect on June 12 2026, asylum registration on the island has been frozen, and the Ministry of Migration and Asylum has blocked access to the registration platform.

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Activists argue the Pact fuels the criminalisation of migrants. Maria of the Steki Metanaston collective links the narrowing of independent access to detention sites with the new framework: “We think there’s a very clear connection to the new Pact.” Eleftheria Iatraki of Thalassa of Solidarity says people are denied the right to apply for asylum because authorities block them. Lefteris Papagiannakis, director of the Greek Council for Refugees, contends Greece has pushed the Pact toward a “worst-case scenario,” creating a “suffocating reality” where most asylum seekers end up detained.

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• “The numbers are clear: arrivals are trending downward. What’s changing are the routes,” — Michalis Markodimitrakis

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• “Once people arrived at Agia, their cell phones were confiscated,” — Maria, Steki Metanaston

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• “We think there’s a very clear connection to the new Pact,” — Maria, Steki Metanaston

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• “Greece has pushed the Pact’s implementation toward the worst-case scenario,” — Lefteris Papagiannakis

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• “It’s created a suffocating reality for anyone seeking asylum — one that, in most cases, ends in detention.” — Leftris Papagiannakis

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