FES BRIEFING SNAPSHOT OF MIGRATION TO GREECE IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS 1 Dr. Angeliki Dimitriadi, Head, Migration Programme & Senior Research Fellow, ELIAMEP. December 2024 BACKGROUND Greece, historically an emigrant-sending country, transitioned between 1990 and 2009 into a destination for economic mi­grants and a transit hub for asylum seekers. Since the early 2000s, irregular arrivals have increasingly included individuals from regions beyond Greece’s immediate neighbors, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Maghreb. Mixed migration, encompassing both eco­nomic migrants and asylum seekers, remains a defining fea­ture of Greece’s maritime and land borders. Over the past five years, Greece has continued to experience diverse and complex migratory flows. These patterns reflect ongoing global displacement as well as a lack of legal path­ways for direct access to the European Union(EU). 2023, Greece registered 247,523 asylum applications. By Sep­tember 30, 2024, an additional 50,039 applications had been filed, consistent with the annual average. Notably, the majority of applicants are from countries with recognized protection profiles, including Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, and Er­itrea. Egyptians, a relatively new group, have appeared in the data since 2022. As of September 2024, Greece reported 482,982 third-coun­try nationals with residence permits, including 77,750 individ­uals who had previously received international protection. Al­banians remain the largest group of permit holders, followed by Chinese, Pakistanis(4.6%), and Georgians(4.1%). POLICIES MIGRATION TO GREECE Greece remains a primary entry point for irregular arrivals to the EU. In 2019, irregular arrivals increased significantly com­pared to previous years, with 59,726 individuals arriving via maritime routes and 14,887 via the Evros land border, accord­ing to data from UNHCR. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp decline in numbers due to global border closures. How­ever, an upward trend has been observed since 2022, with arrivals in 2023 reaching 48,721 and 52,052 recorded as of October 2024, signalling a return to pre-pandemic levels 2 . Asylum applications have also risen, according to data from the Ministry for Migration and Asylum. Between 2019 and 1 The policy brief is based on the information and sources provided in the Country Report of Greece. See Dimitriadi, A.(2024, Decem­ber). Country report: Greece. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, PRIO Cyprus, ELIAMEP, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Af­fairs.https://mena.fes.de/topics/regional-peace-and-security-pro­ject.html(FriSi) 2 All data on arrivals are from UNHCR Mediterranean Portal, https:// data.unhcr.org/en/situations/europe-sea-arrivals/location/24489 Greek migration policy is heavily focused on deterrence, em­ploying complex, bureaucratic processes to reduce the coun­try’s attractiveness to migrants. Greece has long supported ex­ternal migration controls, including the EU-Turkey Statement of 2016. Recent Greek-Turkish rapprochement has included migra­tion as a key agenda item, aiming to strengthen border cooper­ation and facilitate returns to Turkey. Greece has also endorsed EU agreements with Egypt and, more recently, Lebanon. Since 2019, Greece has explored legal labour migration path­ways to address domestic labour shortages and enhance mi­gration diplomacy with third countries, such as Bangladesh and Egypt. However, structural challenges have hindered the effective implementation of these agreements. At the EU level, the Pact on Migration and Asylum is entering its implementation phase. Many member states have ex­pressed dissatisfaction with certain aspects, calling for a new returns framework, harsher policies, more flexibility in how they react to migratory arrivals and exceptions to the rules in the face of‘instrumentalisation’. These shifts are likely to im­pact frontline states like Greece, which may adopt more“ex­ceptional” measures to manage migration pressures. 1