The Council of State will hear on December 5 an appeal filed by bar associations of lawyers on the eastern Aegean islands of Mytilini, Chios, Samos and Kos who oppose a decision to keep migrants and refugees on the islands before their applications are reviewed.
The lawyers are opposing a decision by the Asylum Service director calling for "restriction of movement for applicants of international refugee status."
In their filing, the lawyers argued that the extended stay of the migrants and refugees on the islands is not justified by the Treaty of the European Union with Turkey and that the government made the decision through the director of the Asylum Service, instead of having the immigration minister decide.
The stay decision affects those who have entered Greece after March 20, 2016 and obliges the migrants and refugee applicants to remain on these islands instead of being transferred to the mainland.
"We believe that refugees and migrants who enter Greece through the Greek islands can be transferred to the rest of Greece until their asylum application is reviewed," the Samos bar association president, George Kollaros, told a Chios newspaper.
Source: ANA-MPA >>