FLASH
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Greece is facing a wave of migrants from North Africa, which has forced the Greek government to warn anyone arriving by boat to the Greek islands that they will either end up in prison or be sent home.
"Don't come here. We will put you in jail or send you home," was the message that Greek Immigration Minister Thanos Plevris said regarding the migrant flows.
"The Greeks, like the rest of Europe, want to help real refugees, but they won't take us for fools. It's the end of the story that those who come to Greece and Europe in incredible numbers are all women and children. They are mainly men between the ages of 18 and 30 who are economic migrants. We are not a hotel.
"Many of them are from safe countries, such as Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Now we are telling them that if you sail illegally by boat to Greece, do not expect asylum, but prepare for five years in prison or a ticket home," the Greek minister added.
Greece is on the front lines of Europe's out-of-control migration crisis, which has reached northern France, where smuggling gangs are using fleets of small boats to ferry tens of thousands of migrants to Dover.
Greece, on the other side of the continent, has its own unceasing wave of new arrivals.
This year, at least 10,000 migrants have reached its largest island, Crete, from Libya, several hundred miles away across the Mediterranean Sea.
In the first week of this month alone, shortly after Plevris was appointed immigration minister, a surge of 4,000 people arrived illegally on the island, which is struggling to cope.
The coast guard and police are holding the uninvited foreigners in makeshift camps or empty warehouses where they are fed basic food rations and sleep on concrete floors. They are young men who become dangerously angry while being held against their will in the sweltering summer heat.
"Our big problem today is with Libya and who they are sending," Plevris told the Daily Mail, while promising to stop the flow of migration forever.
Libya is using large boats carrying 200 to 300 people. Of all those who have arrived, 85 percent are men and most of them are young. They are using Greece to illegally enter Europe for a new life.
If we keep sitting and watching, this will never end. Three million migrants are piling up in Libya today.
Ten days ago, the Greek parliament passed a new law suspending all asylum applications from those arriving illegally from North Africa for 'at least three months' due to the 'exceptional' migration emergency. The European Union has sided with Athens, saying the Greek crisis is 'exceptional'.
Under the legislation, expected to be approved within days, most illegal immigrants will have two choices: a five-year prison sentence or deportation to their home country, at Greece's expense. "We will no longer tolerate an invasion from North Africa," Plevris said.
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