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EU-Greece: Report on asylum process: delays, lack of advice and assistance, controversial involvement of EU asylum office

19 April 2017

EU-Greece  
Report on asylum process: delays, lack of advice and assistance, controversial involvement of EU asylum office
19.4.17
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A new report by AITIMA details the problems faced by asylum-seekers in Greece, including a lack of access to the asylum procedure, the issues raised by restrictions on residence that confine people to islands in the Aegean, the "extremely limited" legal advice and assistance available, and the involvement of the European Asylum Support Office in the first instance asylum procedure that "raises issues of competence".

See: Asylum seekers on hold: Aspects of the asylum procedure in Greece(summary in English, pdf) and the full report (Greek, link to pdf)

On access to the asylum procedure, the summary states (emphasis added):

"The access to the asylum procedure remained problematic both at the islands and the mainland.

More specifically, significant delays – of up to eight months – were observed at the islands until the lodging of the asylum applications as well as arbitrary prioritization of specific nationalities, which seemed to be serving the EU-Turkey Statement, without due consideration to the date of arrival and the expression of will to apply for international protection and in many cases to the particular personal circumstances and the vulnerability of each third country national.

At the mainland, the submission by physical presence of an asylum application at the Regional Asylum Offices or the Asylum Units was almost impossible. The asylum seekers were referred in their largest majority to the problematic Skype procedure for the submission of their applications, while, at the same time, the selection of the pre-registration procedure (instead of an immediate full registration) led to long delays of the up to 10 months until the lodging of the asylum applications."

In relation to the first instance asylum procedure and the involvement of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), the summary says:

"The Asylum Service has not yet managed to maintain a uniform and satisfactory level of examination of the asylum applications, so that significant deviations in the quality of the interviews and decisions are observed from one another.

The implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement resulted in limiting the asylum procedure at the islands in an admissibility evaluation of the applications on the basis of whether Turkey constitutes a safe country; the latter was found to be the case for almost 2/3 of the examined cases. Highly indicative of the quality of this procedure and the correctness of these decisions is the fact that the Appeals Committees of the P.D. 114/2010 overturned the largest majority of these decisions which they examined.

In this procedure EASO personnel was largely involved conducting interviews and making recommendations to the Asylum Service. This involvement raises issues of competence in relation to the relevant EU Regulation."

The summary also provides information on:

• Imposition of a restriction on residence on the islands
• Arbitrary deprivation of the right to be included in the relocation program
• Providing legal information
• Providing legal assistance
• Service of asylum seekers and their lawyers by the Asylum Service
• Family reunification procedure
• First instance asylum procedure
• Second instance asylum procedure

It also offers numerous recommendations to various Greek and EU institutions.

See: AITIMA (link)

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