STAGGERING footage shows beachgoers pushing a boat packed with illegal migrants back off a Greek tourist beach after it arrived from Libya.
The asylum seekers in the dinghy attempted to land on Sarakiniko beach – but were dramatically opposed by the locals determined to flush them out.
Footage shows people on the beach pushing away the boat with their hands in a bid to stop the illegal migrants from entering.
It comes as Greece fights back to tackle a surge in migrant arrivals at its southern borders this year.
The country’s parliament recently passed a law to toughen up penalties for rejected asylum seekers and speed up returns to their home countries, the DailyMail reports.
As 50,000 migrants have poured into Britain in small boats, European nations are cracking down and securing their own borders.
With public anger growing over soaring entries to their nations, more leaders are taking a harsher stance on migration – and dishing out swift deportations.
Greece’s Conservative-led government has pledged to bring in a “disincentive-based policy” to deter migrants.
Migration Minister Thanos Plevris recently told Skai TV: “From now on, the government will follow a policy of drastically reducing benefits.”
He even pointed to the menus given to migrants at camps, which he called “hotel-like”.
The government even went as far as to suspend processing asylum applications from North Africa for three months amid a surge in arrivals.
Many of them had arrived on Crete, Greece’s largest island.
But the deputy mayor Eleni Zervoudaki told The Sun: “From the moral side it’s illegal and it’s not right, but from the other side I can understand the government is searching for a way to stop illegal immigration.”
The hairline stance taken by the Greek government has paid dividends – with numbers of arrivals nosediving since the move.
It comes just weeks after dozens of migrants landed at an Algarve beach – but were immediately detained and ordered to return.
A wooden boat, carrying 38 people including seven children, arrived on Friday evening near the town of Vila do Bispo, Portuguese authorities said.
Footage showed the migrants walking out of the boat and getting on the beach.
Beachgoers as well as locals watched in surprise as the dehydrated and hungry migrants reached the shore.
However, they were quickly rounded up by cops near Burgau, a part of the Algarve coast popular with tourists.
It is a stark contrast to the UK, where small boat crossings in the UK have surged past 50,000 – one illegal migrant every 11 minutes – under Labour.
Sir Keir Starmer is facing enormous pressure to tackle illegal immigration.
Home Office statistics show more than 50,000 migrants have crossed the Channel since July 5 2024, when Sir Keir Starmer took charge with a promise to get a grip on our borders.
The 50,000 arrivals are the equivalent of a population the size of Durham, with the majority in taxpayer-funded accommodation.
It comes as No10 denied its flagship plan to “smash the gangs” had flopped.
Second ‘one in, one out’ deportation flight takes off with NO migrants on board
By Thomas Godfrey in Paris,
THE second planned “one in, one out” deportation flight has taken off without a single boat migrant on board — in another huge blow for Sir Keir Starmer.
An Air France flight from Heathrow to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris left with no asylum seekers after more last-minute challenges again blocked the start of the deportation pact.
It is thought that charities and lawyers frustrated the Home Office’s plan to return failed asylum seekers detained last month under a pact with Emmanuel Macron.
Several pairs of seats were left empty on the flight when Air France staff told The Sun it had been fully reserved.
Some passengers moved into the vacated seats after take-off to give themselves more room.
The 45-minute flight took off without any asylum seekers on board and with no staff from either the Border Force or Mitie, the contractor agency which runs the Harmondsworth Removal Centre.
It landed in Paris shortly after 11.30am European time.
At least one asylum seeker had been told they would be deported on this morning’s flight after they were pulled off a plane on Monday afternoon, which also went ahead without any migrants.
The man was sent a message over the weekend reading: “You will be removed from the UK on Air France Flight (AF) 1681 which departs from Heathrow Terminal 4 at 09:00 on 16/09/2025 and arrives in Paris, France at 11:20 on 16/09/2025.”
French officials were preparing to accommodate the male migrant in a hotel in Roissy-en-France, just outside the airport’s perimeter.
It is thought that several others were told they would be flown home this morning but appear to have been prevented from travelling at the last moment.
The delay is another massive blow for Sir Keir Starmer who had hoped the pilot scheme would act as a deterrent to would-be migrants crossing the channel.
