The announcement came a day after European Union's migration commissioner and ministers from Italy, Malta and Greece were denied entry to the eastern part of divided Libya and declared persona non grata by the Benghazi-based government ahead of a scheduled meeting on migration.

"With legislation that will be submitted to the parliament tomorrow, Greece will suspend the examination of asylum applications, initially for three months, for those arriving in Greece from North Africa by sea," Mitsotakis told parliament. He added that he intended to return to Libya all migrants who entered Greece "illegally."

Sea arrivals of migrants traveling from northeastern Libya to Greece's southern islands of Crete and Gavdos have increased to more than 7 300 this year, according to estimates by the Greek Government and aid agencies. That compares with around 5 000 in the whole of 2024.

The migrants mainly come from the Middle East and North Africa, including nationals from Sudan, Egypt and Bangladesh. Greece rescued about 520 migrants off Gavdos early on Wednesday and was taking them to the mainland, the Greek coastguard said.

--Reuters--