Irregular Migrants

The first issue of the Greek Asylum Case Law Report published today is a joint initiative of the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR), HIAS Greece and Refugee Support Aegean (RSA), organisations providing legal support and representation to refugees and asylum seekers in Greece. The note compiles extracts of decisions of Administrative Courts, the Independent Appeals Committees and the Asylum Service in the area international protection selected from the casework of the above organisations.

On 20 December 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced that two cases were communicated to Greece concerning the illegal collective expulsion of migrants from its territory.  

Στο επίκεντρο συνεχιζόμενων καταγγελιών και με νέα στοιχεία για pushbacks, το Λιμενικό Σώμα ακροβατεί μεταξύ της διάσωσης των ανθρώπων στη θάλασσα και της φύλαξης των θαλασσίων συνόρων, άρα και της αποτροπής – που δεν παραδέχεται. 

Την ώρα που ο σκληρός πυρήνας της Ε.Ε. απαιτεί, χωρίς να το φωνάζει πολύ δυνατά, από το Λιμενικό και τη FRONTEX να κλείσουν τον δρόμο στα προσφυγικά κύματα που θέλουν να φτάσουν στην Ευρώπη, συνεχίζονται οι καταγγελίες από ΜΚΟ, οργανισμούς, ευρωβουλευτές και επιτροπές ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων, καθώς πληθαίνουν οι μαρτυρίες ατόμων που ισχυρίζονται ότι εμποδίστηκαν να καταθέσουν αίτημα ασύλου στην Ελλάδα.

Over the summer, the Legal Centre Lesvos (LCL) continued to seek redress before the ECtHR for people forced to live in the Reception and Identification Centre (RIC) in Kara Tepe, Lesvos (also known as Mavrovouni RIC or Moria 2.0), despite their critical state of health.

Between July and September, LCL submitted 9 applications for interim measures to the ECtHR requesting the urgent transfer of individuals and their families out of the Lesvos’ RIC into safer accommodation and their immediate access to urgently needed health care on mainland Greece. 

Kos hosts the only pre-removal detention centre on the Eastern Aegean islands. Since January 2020, the Greek authorities have detained nearly every asylum seeker who has arrived on the island of Kos automatically upon arrival. This has historically included survivors of gender-based violence and torture, families with young children, elderly persons, LGBTQIA people, and people suffering from serious physical and mental health conditions. The automatic detention of asylum seekers is illegal under Greek, EU, and international human rights law, and yet the situation on Kos remains relatively unknown.