While the Greek government is sending contradictory messages about dealing with the humanitarian crisis caused by the return of the Taliban to power, thousands of Afghan refugees living in Greece are anxious for the fate of their relatives and themselves, as based on the Joint Ministerial Decision (JMD) issued in June they may be returned to Turkey as a safe third country with a risk of onward deportation to Afghanistan.
Official data demonstrate that the Greek authorities continue to systematically detain asylum seekers and irregular migrants. The figures reveal a severe violation of the duty of the state to use deprivation of liberty only as a last resort, when necessity and proportionality so require.
WE ARE DEEPLY THANKFUL – Update on the collection of computers for refugee children
Online press conference
This paper summarises comments from legal organisations Refugee Support Aegean (RSA), the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR), HIAS Greece and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) on the bill amending migration and asylum legislation,[1] submitted to public consultation by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum one year after the last migration reform. The organisations offer a detailed analysis of key provisions of the bill and of their impact on refugees and asylum seekers, as well as recommendations to achieve the necessary harmonisation of Greek legislation with EU law.
Greece is intensifying its detention policy under the hypocritical and tolerating gaze of the EU. More specifically, on Kos and – during the operation of the pre-removal centre – in Evros the authorities apply a policy of generalised and systematic detention of newly arrived asylum seekers subject to a few exceptions, whereas even vulnerable people are detained for prolonged periods.
PRO ASYL and Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) warn that the right to asylum and the 1951 Refuge Convention are being largely suspended in Greece – with the active support of the European Union.
Three asylum seekers represented by Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) have lodged complaints with the European Commission relating to infringement of EU law stemming from Greece’s failure to correctly transpose and implement the Asylum Procedures Directive (2013/32/EU) and the Reception Conditions Directive (2013/33/EU).
RSA publishes the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) “Turkey: Content of Protection – Country Information Pack”, last updated in August 2019.
our organisations stress that “externalization simply shifts asylum responsibilities elsewhere and evades international obligations”. We once again call on the Greek and European authorities to honour their responsibility to protect refugees and to avoid further undermining the European asylum acquis and the fundamental principles and values for protecting human rights. To this end, we call on Greece to revoke the JMD issued on 7 June.
Risks of repression of civil society organisations supporting refugees and migrants in Greece have been heavily exacerbated by successive legislative reforms in 2020, introducing disproportionate and ambiguous requirements for registration on two Registries managed by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum.
We are collecting old laptops, of the past 8 years, and to distribute them to refugee children, thus enabling them to attend educational classes remotely