Registration of asylum applications in the new mainland RIC in Greece
Observations on access to the asylum procedure in the Attica region
Since September 2022, Greece applies screening (hereafter “reception and identification”) procedures to irregularly arriving or staying third-country nationals and stateless persons on the mainland, in addition to existing procedures at the Evros land border and on the islands, under the responsibility of the Reception and Identification Service (RIS) of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. According to a circular of said Ministry, as a rule, persons who are present on the mainland and have not previously undergone reception and identification procedures shall lodge their asylum applications at the Reception and Identification Centres (RIC) of Malakasa and Diavata, near Athens and Thessaloniki respectively.
This report documents the legal and administrative issues pertaining to the new uniform registration procedure and to asylum seekers’ access to their rights following the launch of the new mainland RIC, through the lens of eleven recent cases of asylum seekers supported by Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) in the Attica region, covered by the RIC of Malakasa. It analyses obstacles to the making of asylum applications, the regime applicable in the RIC and the conduct of reception and identification procedures and lodging of asylum applications therein.
