Fear and Confusion: Greece’s Untenable Hotspots

• In Event: Denizenship, Immigration, and Legitimacy: How Identity, Membership, and Experience Shape Perceptions of the State

Abstract

Greece is at the forefront of the migration tragedy that continues to unfold in Europe. In 2015, over one million migrants irregularly entered Europe; approximately eighty percent of them used Greece as their entry point. The vast majority of these migrants crossed the volatile Aegean Sea to reach one of Greece’s many islands. These “sea arrivals”, as the UNHCR calls them, traveled through Greece in order to reach other Western European states. In response to this spike in irregular migration, the European Union implemented two initiatives: the “hotspot” approach in mid­2015, and the EU­Turkey deal in early 2016. Both of these migration control mechanisms drastically affected the legal options and reception conditions available to sea arrivals; whereas before sea arrivals would rapidly travel through Greece, they are now prohibited from leaving the Greek islands. These migrants remain in a perpetual state of legal limbo: they are uncertain when (or if) their asylum claims will be heard. This paper analyzes the legal liminality of Greece’s sea arrivals and their ability to access protection from refoulement.

Author

• Hillary Mellinger, American University