Migration and Asylum Minister Plevris announces closure of “unlicensed” prayer rooms in Athens
Migration and Asylum Minister Thanos Plevris announced that a number of Muslim prayer rooms in Athens will be shut down on the grounds that they are operating without official permits, and that the residence permits of migrants managing these facilities will be revoked.
Residence Permits to Be Revoked, Deportations Planned
Speaking in Parliament, Minister Plevris stated that the residence permit of a Bangladeshi migrant who managed a prayer room in Athens had already been revoked, and that the facility was closed due to its status as an “unlicensed place of worship.”
Plevris further confirmed that a deportation order had been issued against the individual in question.
As justification for the residence permit revocation, the minister referred to legislation that entered into force in 2025, which предусматривает the cancellation of residence permits for migrants found to be violating the law. He emphasized that similar closures and permit cancellations would be implemented for other “unlicensed” mosques and prayer rooms, in coordination with the relevant ministries.
Only One Official Mosque in Athens
Athens, which for many years was the only European capital without an official mosque, saw the opening of its first state-recognized mosque in the Votanikos district in 2020.
However, despite the presence of tens of thousands of Muslims living in the city, the existence of only one official mosque has led many Muslims to continue practicing their faith in prayer rooms established through their own means in various neighborhoods.
A number of these prayer rooms, however, are classified as “unlicensed places of worship” due to bureaucratic and administrative obstacles.
Context Note
The announcement has reignited debates in Greece over freedom of religion, equal access to places of worship, and the intersection of migration policy with religious practice, particularly in urban centers with large migrant and Muslim populations.
