Greece is temporarily suspending asylum applications from migrants who reach the country by sea from North Africa. After two days of debate, the parliament in Athens voted to approve the measure on Friday.
According to an official parliamentary count, 177 members of parliament (MPs) voted in favour of the change and 74 against.
The government said that Athens had informed the European Commission of the move.
The measure is primarily intended as a deterrent and will initially apply for three months.
The conservative government said that arriving migrants would be detained and returned to their countries of origin or provenance as quickly as possible.
"The route to Greece will be closed, that is the message to the smugglers," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said during the parliamentary debate.
However, repatriations are not easy to implement because some countries of origin are not cooperating in taking back their nationals.
The left-wing opposition in Greece sees the move as a violation of human rights.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also expressed concern. "The right to seek asylum is a fundamental human right, enshrined in international, European and national law, and applies to everyone regardless of how or where they arrive in a country," the organization said in a statement.
In recent weeks, there has been a sharp increase in the number of migrants leaving Libya and arriving on the island of Crete. According to the migrants, smugglers charge up to €5,000 ($5,843) for the dangerous 300-kilometre crossing.
