CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACCESS TO ASYLUM
Athens, 31 January 2017
PRESS RELEASE
No more dead refugees – Immediate transportation of the asylum seekers from
the Aegean islands to the mainland for a fair examination of the merits of
their asylum applications in a context of freedom and decent living conditions
Our organizations participating in the Campaign for the Access to Asylum,
have already expressed since the very beginning of 2016 our deepest concern in
relation to the adoption by the European Union and the Greek Government of
asylum policies which constitute an unprecedented retreat from the European acquis
in the field of refugee protection. This view has been expressed and documented
in our previous public statements as well as in our press conference held on
the 31st of March 2016 in reference to the EU-Turkey Statement and its
repercussions.
Today, nine months later, reality
reaffirms our previously expressed fears and the Joint Statement proves to be disastrous
for the management of the refugee issue, given that its implementation has led
to the stranding of thousands of refugees on the islands of the north east
Aegean Sea, who are forced to live under unacceptable conditions. This is tragically
evidenced by the death of four asylum seekers.
Α. Concerning the situation on the islands, the Campaign for the Access
to Asylum would like to point out the following:
·
There are more than 16.000
refugees stranded on the islands of the north east Aegean Sea, living in
overcrowded Reception and Identification Centers, their number exceeding by far
the capacity of those centers and all other available accommodation places.
·
Detention up to 25 days is
imposed to all new comers, including vulnerable groups, without any
individualized evaluation.
·
A mandatory restriction to
stay at the islands is imposed to all asylum seekers falling within the scope
of application of the EU-Turkey Statement notwithstanding the fact that the
reception conditions are completely incompatible with the relevant legal
framework and not even the minimum safety standards are being observed.
·
The reception procedures are
problematic given that there are:
-
significant insufficiencies in
the identification and protection for vulnerable cases
-
serious delays in the
registration and examination of the asylum applications
-
violation of the principle of
non-discrimination by the prioritization of the registration and processing of
the applications of persons of specific nationalities
-
rejection of the largest
majority of the asylum applications by Syrian nationals as inadmissible on the
grounds of the implementation of the “safe third country” concept for Turkey,
without due regard to the latest developments in the country and the abundance
of evidence that it does not meet the legal requirements for being considered
as such
-
competence and accountability
issues because of the involvement of EASO personnel in the examination
procedure of the asylum requests.
·
Among the persons that have
been returned to Turkey under the Joint Statement framework there have been
documented cases of people that had previously requested international
protection and were removed in violation of international law.
·
Because of the unacceptable
reception conditions, the persons stranded on the islands attempt to abandon
the islands and come to the mainland, which in turn results to the
deterioration of their actual and legal situation due to the legal gap that is
created concerning their residence status in the country.
B. Concerning the situation in the mainland, the the Campaign for the
Access to Asylum highlights the following:
·
According to the Greek
authorities, there are still approximately 47.000 refugees staying in the
country, a big number of whom lives in unacceptable conditions, sometimes reaching
the threshold of inhuman and degrading treatment.
·
The entrance and stranding in
the country of such a big number of people in need of international protection
has illustrated anew the systemic problems of the Greek administration in
relation to the reception and access to a fair and effective system of
international protection. We would specifically like to stress:
-
the significant delay in the
processing of the registration and examination of the asylum applications as
well as of the processing of the relocation and family reunification cases,
which aggravates the agony and the stand-by feeling of the asylum seekers
-
the difficulties caused by the
obligatory skype access to the asylum procedure, which excludes a big part of
the applicants from the asylum system due to the unavailability of appropriate
means, as well as by the limited access due to the small number of available staff
-
the problematic examination of
the applications at second instance, especially after the formation of the
Independent Appeal Committees (under the amended provisions of the Law
4375/2016) and the subsequent extended participation of judges at these
committees, taking into account that the legality of the formation of these
committees is being challenged in front of the Greek administrative courts.
C. In addition, the aforementioned
policies have:
·
Intensified the tensions and
created incidents of intolerance to the local communities, which were until
recently standing in solidarity with the refugees, exposing them to the
influence of the racist rhetoric and its followers, for which we are expressing
our concern.
At this point we would also like to express our concern for the similarly alarming
inaction of the competent authorities concerning incidents of violence against
refugees like the ones that took place at the camp of the Souda region of
Chios.
·
Moreover, as a result of these
policies the smuggling mechanisms have strengthened at the expense of refugees
and in favor of those taking advantage of them.
D. Faced with the already illustrated
dead-end situation not only do the European institutions and the Greek
Ministry of Migration not show any intention of changing the policies connected
to the EU-Turkey Statement, but, on the contrary, they announced the
continuance and extension of those policies. In particular:
·
The Greek authorities are
already preparing to transfer the asylum seekers whose applications are still
pending to closed centers, which practically means detention centers.
·
The European and the Greek
authorities are planning to extend the implementation of the readmission
procedure to Turkey to the only categories of asylum seekers so far excluded,
in particular to vulnerable cases and to family reunification applicants under
the Dublin III Regulation.
·
The European Commission is
planning the resumption of asylum seekers’ returns back to Greece under the
Dublin III Regulation, which has continuously been criticized and condemned for
the deadlock, unfair and inhuman situations it produces, and without regard and
against the findings of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers (which is the
competent authority for the evaluation of the general measures adopted by the
Greek government concerning its compliance to the M.S.S. v Belgium and Greece judgement of the 21st January 2011 of the European Court
of Human Rights) that Greece hasn’t cured the violations of the legislation for
which it was convicted by the European Court of Human Rights with the
aforementioned judgements among others.[1]
Ε. Recommendations
Our organizations participating to the Campaign for
the Access to Asylum believe that in order that the above problems can be
tackled, a completely different policy should be adopted. More specifically:
At the EU level there is a need to abolish
the Dublin III Regulation and create a permanent relocation mechanism, binding
for all member states, on the basis of a fair distribution and responsibility
sharing, aiming at the protection of refugees.
At the national level there is a need for the
implementation of a fair and effective reception system which will on one hand respect
the rights of asylum seekers as those are depicted in national, EU and
international law, and on the other hand have the capacity to manage in due
time registration and examination of asylum applications, as well as processing
of family reunification and relocation cases.
More specifically:
1)
The following practices
followed by the authorities should be immediately abandoned:
·
blanket
detention at Reception and Identification Centers, without any individualized
evaluation
·
admissibility
assessment based on the consideration of Turkey as first country of asylum or
safe third country which is overtly violating international law
·
mandatory
restriction of stay at the islands in conditions endangering asylum seekers and
subjecting them to degrading treatment
·
prioritization
of certain nationalities for the needs of implementing the EU-Turkey statement
·
involvement of
EASO staff in the asylum process despite the fact that this is not in
accordance with the Regulation of this EU Agency.
2)
Asylum applications submitted
in the islands should be examined in merits at the mainland in a context of
freedom and decent living conditions.
3)
Asylum applications submitted
by persons who have left the islands and have moved to the mainland should also
be examined in merits at the mainland.
Moreover, regarding the situation in the mainland we
would like to stress that the following steps should be taken:
·
Strenghtening
of the Asylum Service so as to ensure:
-
full access to the asylum
procedure by showing up to the Regional Asylum Offices
-
fair examination of asylum
applications in due time
-
fast processing of family
reunification and relocation cases
·
Provision of
reception conditions which are compatible with international law.
To this end it is urgent that the authorities will
soon absorb the available EU funding which is not taken advantage of –in times
of refugee and financial crisis- due to delays in constituting and running the
Responsible Authority.
Given that more delay in taking these steps will lead
to even more disastrous results, we hope that the competent Greek and EU
authorities will take our recommendations into serious consideration and we
remain at their disposal for detailed discussion on them.
THE ORGANIZATIONS (in
alphabetical order):
ΑΙΤIΜA http://www.aitima.gr
ARSIS – Association for the Social Support of Youth http://arsis.gr
Δίκτυο Κοινωνικής Υποστήριξης Προσφύγων &
Μεταναστών http://migrant.diktio.org
Greek Helsinki Monitor https://greekhelsinki.wordpress.com
Greek Council for Refugees http://www.gcr.gr
Greek Forum of Refugees http://www.refugees.gr
KSPM-Ecumenical Refugee Program http://www.ecclesia.gr/greek/koinonia/kspm.html
PRAKSIS http://www.praksis.gr
Initiative for the Detainees' Rights http://www.tokeli.gr
[1] ECRE Comments on the European
Commission Recommendation relating to the reinstatement of Dublin transfers to
Greece – C(2016) 871 http://www.ecre.org/ecre-comments-on-the-commission-recommendation-relating-to-the-reinstatement-of-dublin-transfers-to-greece/
See
also recent ECtHR decision prohibiting Hungary to return asylum seekers to
Greece under Dublin III Regulation: ECtHR, M.S. v. Hungary, Application No
64194/16; H.J. v. Hungary, Application No 70984/16. See further Hungarian Helsinki
Committee, Update on Dublin transfers, 14 December 2016, available at: https://goo.gl/R3Thn5; Greek National Committee for Human
Rights Statement in response to the recommendation of the European Commission
to reactivate the refugee return mechanism under Dublin system (19.12.2016)
available at http://www.nchr.gr/images/pdf/nea_epikairothta/Dublin_statement_gr.pdf.
