facts

Due to its geographic location,
Greece has always been one of
the main gateways to Europe
from the Middle East and beyond by land,
air and sea. Recent arrivals include a
substantial number of people fleeing
war-torn countries such as Somalia and
Afghanistan. And in the first sixmonths
of 2007, some 3,500 Iraqis applied for
asylum in Greece, the second highest
number in any industrialized country, after
Sweden.
Overall, the number of migrants and
asylum seekers crossing by boat from
Turkey increased sharply in 2007. As a
result, detention centres on the islands of
Samos, Chios and Lesvos experienced
serious problems of overcrowding.
The UN refugee agency has repeatedly
raised concerns about the poor conditions
under which migrants and asylum seekers
are kept in Greece – and in October 2007,
UNHCR called for the immediate closure of
one particular holding centre, on the island
of Samos, because of its overcrowded and
extremely unhygienic condition. An earlier
European Parliament report (July 2007) had
described the same centre as “squalid,
deplorable, inhuman and unacceptable,”
and had cast a critical eye over a number of
other aspects of the country’s asylum
system.
Irregular entrants in Greece face major
difficulties accessing asylum procedures.
These include lack of information about
their rights and asylum procedures, lack of
qualified interpreters and insufficient legal
aid. However, a new Interior Ministry guide
to asylum procedures in Greece, published
in six different languages, is expected to
help improve this situation somewhat.
For several years, UNHCR has been
expressing concern at the extraordinarily
low numbers of refugees being recognized
in Greece, compared to other EU countries
(the overall Greek recognition rate has
tended to be just above or below 1%).
And a study on the implementation of the
European Union’s Qualification Directive in
five EU states, released by the agency in
November 2007, appeared to confirm that
there are serious problems with the
country’s asylum procedure.
The study examined 305 randomly
selected first instance decisions on claims
lodged by asylumseekers from Sudan, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka. All 305
decisions were negative. The study found
that none of the decisions contained any
reference to the facts, and none
mentioned any legal reasoning. Although
each asylum claim should be evaluated on
its individual merits, all the decisions
examined contained a standard paragraph
with exactly the same information.
As a result of these deficiencies, the
study said, “the research was not able to
discern legal practice in Greece.”
A few weeks earlier, in October 2007,
another report was issued – by the Greek
Group of Lawyers for the Rights of
Refugees and Migrants and the German
NGO Pro Asyl – which alleged that the
Greek coastguard was pushing back boat
people. “It tries to block their boats and
force them out of Greek territorial waters,”
the report stated. “Regardless of whether
they survive or not, passengers are cast
ashore on uninhabited islands or left to
their fate on the open sea.” The report also
alleged there had been serious physical
maltreatment of migrants in Greece, as
well as cases of forced returns of people,
who could be refugees, across the land
border with Turkey (an issue UNHCR has
raised separately on a number of
occasions). The Greek government ordered
an investigation into the claims.