Asylum procedure statistics in Greece 2024: Four in five asylum applications granted
Asylum procedure statistics in Greece 2024: This note analyses the workings of the Greek asylum procedure over the past year, based on monthly statistics published by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum and figures provided in response to parliamentary questions.
Key figures
Asylum applications
69,000 initial asylum applications, lodged mainly on the islands
4,688 subsequent asylum applications, including 867 following an inadmissible initial claim on “safe third country” grounds
1,223 subsequent applications subject to a 100 € fee per person
First instance procedure at the Asylum Service
79% recognition rate, based almost exclusively on refugee status, mainly for Syria and Afghanistan
91.4% recognition rate in the border procedure
7,050 manifestly unfounded rejections, of which 6,986 on “safe country of origin” grounds
2,143 inadmissibility decisions on “safe third country” grounds, of which 2,090 regarding Türkiye, including 1,256 in the border procedure
3,037 inadmissibility decisions on subsequent applications without new elements, of which 235 regarding initial claims dismissed on “safe third country” grounds
29,885 pending cases at first instance, including 14,142 awaiting an interview
Second instance procedure at the Appeals Committees
12,039 appeals, of which 7,902 received free legal assistance from the Registry of Lawyers of the Asylum Service
1,588 appeals dismissed due to failure to appear in person
1,526 appeals dismissed due to late submission
310 oral hearings at the appeal stage
10.1% recognition rate at second instance, with positive decisions mainly for Syria, Somalia and Afghanistan
Judicial review at the administrative courts
1,520 pending judicial review applications at the Administrative Courts of Athens and Thessaloniki
30.5% approval rate for judicial review applications
Below, we present a selection of key statistical data on the asylum procedure in Greece in 2024, drawn from the full content of the note.
Access to the asylum procedure
Official figures of the Greek authorities refer to a total of 62,053 recorded arrivals of undocumented persons in the past year. Of those, 7,587 arrived at the Evros land border, 39,016 via the Eastern Mediterranean on the Eastern Aegean islands, and 5,987 via the Central Mediterranean mainly on Crete and Gavdos.
The RIS registered a total of 65.072 people in screening procedures, including 8,228 in Evros, 43,697 in the Closed Controlled Access Centres (CCAC) of the Eastern Aegean islands and 13,147 on the mainland. Most RIS registrations took place in CCAC Lesvos and Samos.
The Asylum Service and the RIS registered a total of 73,688 asylum seekers in 2024, a steady increase compared to 64,084 in 2023 and 37,362 in 2022.
The main nationalities of asylum seekers registered last year were as follows:
The main countries of origin of asylum seekers include Syria and Afghanistan. The Greek government had designated Türkiye as a “safe third country” (STC) for the nationals of those countries based on a national list of safe third countries. Said list was quashed in March 2025 by the Plenary of the Council of State due to inadequate reasoning. The same list covered Pakistan, a country also designated as “safe country of origin” (SCO) in a separate national list. The latter list includes Egypt.
Subsequent applications
Subsequent asylum applications are lodged at the RAO and AAU of the Asylum Service. According to data supplied by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum in response to parliamentary questions, a total of 4,688 subsequent applications were lodged in 2024 following a final decision on the initial claim. This number represents a slight decrease compared to 6,326 applications in 2023. The main nationalities of people lodging subsequent applications in 2024 were as follows:
Out of a total of 4,688 subsequent asylum applications lodged last year, 1,223 were second or onward subsequent applications. Since 2022, these claims are subject to a fee of 100 € per person according to Greek legislation. No other EU Member State has enacted such a rule. In light of this, more than 120,000 € were paid to the Greek state in 2024 for access to the asylum process under that measure. The legality of this rule is being reviewed by the Council of State – the judgment is pending at the time of writing.
Second or onward subsequent applications subject to a 100 € fee per person were mostly lodged by nationals of Pakistan (464), followed by Albania (154) and Afghanistan (133).
First instance procedure at the Asylum Service
According to official statistics, 44,498 personal interviews of asylum seekers were carried out in 2024. The Asylum Service issued 77,392 first instance decisions last year. 50,117 of those were decisions on the merits of asylum applications, assessing whether conditions for refugee status or subsidiary protection were met.
Almost 4/5 of asylum applications examined on their merits by the Asylum Service were granted. The overall recognition rate at first instance reached 79%, up from 76.6% in 2023 and 62.3% in 2022. Specifically, 39,271 decisions taken in 2024 granted refugee status and 296 granted subsidiary protection, while 10,550 were rejections on the merits.
Recognition rates remained extremely high for the main countries of origin of people seeking protection in Greece: over 99% for Syria, Afghanistan, Palestine and Yemen; 98% for Sudan; and over 80% for Iraq and Somalia. Official data therefore still confirm that the overwhelming majority of people applying for asylum in the country are refugees and are entitled to protection in Greece.
The majority of rejection decisions concern manifestly unfounded applications (5,164) rejected under the accelerated procedure, almost exclusively based on the national list of “safe countries of origin”.
Border procedure
Still in 2024, Greece made systematic, arbitrary use of the border procedure to cases of people making asylum applications inside CCAC on the Eastern Aegean islands. The practice breaches the prohibition on applying this procedure to claims that are not made at the “borders” or in “transit zones”.
Moreover, we have repeatedly stressed that the border procedure may only be used for the purpose of examining the admissibility of asylum applications or where one or more grounds apply for examination of their merits under the accelerated procedure. Therefore, the border procedure may not substitute the regular procedure for the purpose of in-merit assessment of applications that are not presumed to be manifestly unfounded. The European Commission has also raised the matter with the Greek authorities.
The Asylum Service took 34,122 decisions in the border procedure in 2024; more than quadrupling the 7,662 issued in 2023. Of those, 1,446 were manifestly unfounded rejections and 1,609 were inadmissibility decisions. Accordingly, the overwhelming majority of decisions taken in the border procedure exceed the boundaries of the law and should have been channelled into the regular procedure. This includes 1,354 unfounded rejections unlawfully issued by the Asylum Service in the border procedure.
No single case was exempted from the border procedure for reasons of vulnerability and need for special procedural guarantees. This yet again raises serious questions as to Greece’s compliance with the duty to afford special procedural safeguards to those asylum seekers who require them in order to navigate the asylum process.
The vast majority of decisions issued in the border procedure were positive, pointing to an extremely high recognition rate of 91.4%; by far exceeding the high overall recognition rate of 79%. 20,695 of the total of 29,566 refugee status grants issued in the border procedure concerned nationals of Syria and Afghanistan.
Second instance procedure at the Appeals Committees
12,039 appeals were lodged before the Appeals Authority against Asylum Service decisions last year, up from 10,973 in 2023. The main countries of origin of appellants include countries listed as “safe countries of origin”, namely Egypt and Pakistan, as well as countries for nationals of which Türkiye had been designated as a “safe third country” e.g. Syria and Somalia:
The Appeals Committees took a total of 12,909 second instance decisions throughout the past year. 6,645 of these were decisions on the merits of asylum applications.
The above figures point to an overall second instance recognition rate of 10.1%, a drop from 14.8% in 2023 and 11.8% in 2022.
Conclusions
The following conclusions may be drawn from the official data of the Greek authorities on the asylum process:
- The fact that overwhelming majority of people registered by the RIS and requesting asylum in Greece are refugees and obtain protection already at first instance remains a key feature of the Greek asylum system.
- Policies such as “safe third country” continue to lead to arbitrary denial of protection to thousands of refugees entitled thereto, and to severe breaches at the stages of both designation of safe countries and dismissal of individual asylum applications as inadmissible.
- The border procedure continues to be arbitrarily applied to all people arriving on the Eastern Aegean islands, even though most asylum applications are approved. Greece must respect the boundaries of the border procedure, bearing in mind that the majority of arrivals and registrations take place in the island CCAC.
- There is still an increase in the number of Appeals Committee decisions quashed in judicial review, albeit with significant delay. This raises concerns as to the quality of the second instance asylum procedure. Crucial issues at the level of Appeals Committees include the widespread dismissal of appeals – without examination – due to late submission or to failure to appear in person, as well as the extremely limited use of oral hearings.
Finally, we recall that data that are absolutely essential to a sound understanding of the Greek asylum procedure are only made available in response to parliamentary questions. We therefore reiterate our constant demand for regular disclosure of all Ministry of Migration and Asylum statistics, with a view to providing comprehensive information on the asylum system and to substantiating its implementation.
