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. As Europe celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Geneva Refugee Convention, attempts are being made to violate its core principles.
Greece declared Turkey a safe third country for refugees coming from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Somalia. As of 7 June 2021, all asylum applicants from the five countries who did not have their interview yet will be examined in relation to Turkey, regardless whether they arrived in Greece on the sea or the land border. In the previous days, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) already held the training of the case workers of the Asylum Service for the new legal regime.
The designation of Turkey as a safe third country has major political significance and is part of the containment logic of the toxic EU-Turkey deal. The decision essentially dismantles the minimum safeguards of the afflicted Greek asylum system and puts thousands of people seeking protection at risk in stark contravention of basic rule of law principles. In 2020, two out of three asylum applicants in Greece originate from one of the five listed countries (66 percent). In the same period, 77 percent of all people granted international protection in Greece origined from one of the listed countries.
Tens of thousands of people, families, men, women and unaccompanied children will end up at risk of refoulement. They will be trapped again in despair on the islands and the mainland, in detention, without access to work, housing and welfare. The decision will create another generation of “rejected” human beings living marginalised without documents or rights, further fuelling smuggling networks and exploitation at every level.
Beyond immediate effects on the lives of refugees, the decision will also form the pretext for the government’s withdrawal from basic policies to protect refugees and to guarantee their access to housing, health care, education and integration.
Through the Joint Ministerial Decision 42799/7-6-2021, Greece turns yet again into an institutional deviation laboratory of anti-refugee policies. It politically and institutionally sides with the Hungarian government, the first in Europe to put forward a concrete anti-refugee policy through similar decisions, condemned by international and EU institutions as contrary to human rights.
Meanwhile, competent EU institutions and Member States are granting the Greek government a “Carte Blanche”. It is obviously in their interest for Greece to “locally manage” the arrival of refugees in the EU – by military means and using violence and illegal pushbacks, instead of providing protection and by taking EU-wide responsibility for refugee reception.
Meanwhile, competent EU institutions and Member States are granting the Greek government a “Carte Blanche”. It is obviously in their interest for Greece to “locally manage” the arrival of refugees in the EU – by military means and using violence and illegal pushbacks, instead of providing protection and by taking EU-wide responsibility for refugee reception.
It comes only days after Germany, France and four other European governments wrote to the Commission on 1 June 2021 to sharply denounce “secondary movements” of recognised refugees arriving with travel documents from Greece and to urge for measures to enable returns thereto. On 4 June, the Greek government denied the accusations of “flagrant abuse of refugee travel documents” made by its counterparts, recalling that the issuance of travel documents is a duty under international and EU law.
Three days later, the Joint Ministerial Decision brings about the full dismantling of the Greek asylum system. Through a single ‘trick’, Greece attempts to repeal its obligation to examine the asylum claims of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan and Bangladesh on their merits, in stark contradiction with the rule of law, the Constitution and the international commitments of the State. The process laid down is also contrary to EU law. The Decision declares Turkey to be safe, even though it evidently is not, with a view to ejecting refugees from the asylum procedure. Therefore, the decision introduces automatic rejection of asylum claims as inadmissible and converts persons of the above five countries from people in need of protection to returnees to Turkey.
Greece unilaterally declares Turkey a safe third country for refugees whereas:
RSA and PRO ASYL call on the Greek government to withdraw Joint Ministerial Decision 42799/7-6-2021, as it is contrary to basic principles of international, constitutional and EU law and it engages the country’s responsibility.
RSA and PRO ASYL call on the competent international organisations and institutions, including EU institutions, to publicly position themselves on the risks of infringement of the rights of thousands of refugees on account of the implementation of said decision.
RSA and PRO ASYL backs the Greek position, that a common European asylum system must also include that Member States fully recognises each other’s status decisions and that recognised refugees enjoy the freedom of movement like EU citizens.