The vote comes amid a surge in migrant arrivals to the island of Crete and after talks with divided Libya's Benghazi-based eastern government to help stem the flow were cancelled acrimoniously this week.

If passed, the law would represent a further hardening of Greece's stance towards migrants on Europe's southern fringe.

"From now on, the road for illegal migrants is go to jail or go back to their country," Migration Minister, Thanos Plevristold parliament before the vote. "This is not a just normal migrant flow, it is an invasion into Europe."

A vote on the law, which would also allow authorities to quickly deport migrants without any prior identification process, was expected on Thursday or Friday. It is expected to pass, given the ruling party's parliamentary majority.

Greece, one of the main gateways into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa, has taken an increasingly tough stand on migration since Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' centre-right New Democracy came to power in 2019, building a fence at its northern land borders and boosting sea patrols in the east.

Still, sea arrivals of migrants travelling from northeastern Libya to its southern islands of Crete and Gavdos, the closest European territory to North Africa, have surged this year.

--Reuters--