Deportations

109 organisations call for the immediate withdrawal of the illegal suspension of access to asylum in Greece.

The new issue of the Greek Asylum Case Law Report released today provides excerpts from 82 decisions by administrative, civil and criminal courts, the Independent Appeals Committees and the Asylum Service, issued in the first half of 2025.

Granting of refugee status to survivors and supplementary criminal investigation. The survivors of the Pylos shipwreck on 14 June 2023, whom we legally represent, along with most other survivors, were finally granted refugee status at the end of 2024, following persistent efforts, and while some of their asylum applications had initially been rejected at the first instance.

Clear evidence of serious criminal liability among senior Coast Guard officers – Unacceptable interference by the Ministry of Shipping

On Friday 4 October 2024 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in line with the Advocate’s General Opinion, ruled that Member States cannot issue a decision rejecting an asylum application as inadmissible on the basis of the concept of a “safe third country” in cases where they have established that the asylum seeker will not be allowed to enter the territory of a country designated as safe.

This report draws on information inter alia provided by the Directorate of the Hellenic Police and the General Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons and Institutional Protection (GSVP) of the Ministry on Migration and Asylum, national and international jurisprudence, reports by international, European and national human rights bodies and institutions, international and non-governmental organisations, publicly available data, media information as well as GCR’s observations from practice and information provided by the GCR Legal and Social Unit.