Greece warns of ‘invasion’ as it halts asylum on Med route

Greek migration minister Thanos Plevris says his country faces a "state of emergency".

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Signs from an old tourist fair propped up behind them urge visitors to "Explore the Beauty of Nature" with illustrations of coves and beaches in Crete.

But those held in the former Ayia exhibition centre did not come to the Greek island as holidaymakers. They are migrants who risked a journey across the sea from Libya to Europe's southern tip and were then detained and denied the right to apply for asylum.

From Crete, they are now being moved to closed facilities on the mainland.

The right for anyone to request protection, or asylum, is inscribed in EU and international law and in the constitution of Greece itself. But in a move implemented in haste earlier this month and criticised by human rights lawyers, the government has over-ridden that principle for the next three months at least.