1. INTRODUCTION Every year, thousands of refugees and migrants hide in passenger ships, traveling in high-speed inflatable boats or in any other maritime transport, in an attempt, to cross the Adriatic Sea. These crossborder movements on this internal EU-border, in most of the cases, concern people in need of international protection, coming from countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Eritrea, who upon arrival to the Italian ports, wish to lodge an asylum international protection application.1 Among them, there are many unaccompanied minors and other vulnerable groups. These people are trying to escape from Greece, their first European country of entry, which has been condemned by the European Court of Human rights (ECHtR) in the case of MSS v Belgium and Greece2 as not being safe for people in need of international protection (among other reasons due to the lack of access to the asylum procedure3, lack of legal safeguards against refoulement, absent or insufficient reception conditions, inadequate, to say the least, welfare and integration policies).4 Furthermore, refugees and migrants have become the first victims of the profound financial and social crisis that struck Greece. At the same time, an unprecedented increase of racist violence is putting their lives daily, at risk.5 1 According to UNHCR 2008 written submissions: «In 2008, the proportion of asylum-seekers among boat arrivals was approximately 75% of whom some 50% were recognized as refugees or as needing another form of protection.” 2 M.S.S v Belgium and Greece (Application 30696/09). http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx#{%22dmdocn umber%22:[%22880339%22],%22itemid%22:[%22001-103050%22]} 1. 3 See also: “Asylum campaign Report” http://omadadikigorwn.blogspot.gr/ 4 See also: Joint Submission of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in the case of M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece (Application no. 30696/09). www.ecre.org/index.php?option=com_downloads&id=566 5 “I came here for peace” – The systematic ill-treatment of migrants and refugees by state agents in Patras. http://www. proasyl.de/fileadmin/fm-dam/p_KAMPAGNEN/Flucht-ist-kein-Verbrechen/Patras-Webversion04D-DS-k.pdf, Racist incidents recorded in Greece. http://www.unhcr.gr/nea/artikel/aa6559226a5ce001775aa74c54a30b7a/anisychitika-ta-apot.html For more info see also: Racist Violence Recording Network. http:// www.1againstracism.gr/index.php/el/component/k2/itemlist/ category/25----, “Walls of Shame” - Accounts from the inside. The detention centres of Evros .” http://www.proasyl.de/fileadmin/fmdam/q_PUBLIKATIONEN/2012/Evros-Bericht_12_04_10_BHP.pdf, 4 Inevitably, more people are desperately trying to leave Greece by any means through the Adriatic Sea, as well, attempts which consequently result in the loss of lives of an unknown number of irregular border crossers.6 Only in the last week of June 2012 two Afghans died on their way to Ancona, two are in a coma and one is hospitalized with severe injuries when a group of refugees hidden inside a bus, suffered from the heat and lack of oxygen (23.06.12)7. Five days later a boat carrying 84 refugees reached the coast of Leuca in the province of Lecce (28.06.12). Eight of the boat people are still missing8. While official statistics indicate that a certain number of people are being readmitted annually from Italy to Greece, NGOs in Greece in their daily operations have registered a much greater number of people who have been readmitted from Italy. Apparently, the research findings clearly indicate that in the majority, people in need of international protection and unaccompanied minors who are detected and apprehended in the Italian ports and in the southern coasts of Italy, are either refused entry to the Italian territory or are readmitted back to Greece9, without being granted any access to international protection, to any sort of registration of their claim, identification and individual evaluation of their case and/or vulnerability. Italy on the one hand halts the return of people back to Greece under the Dublin II Regulation recognizing that Greece is not a safe country and GCR 2012: “Evros Region. Unaccompanied Minors in the GreekTurkish Borders.” http://www.gcr.gr/sites/default/files/evros_ el.pdf, Greek Council for Refugees, Press Release, The Trial of the Policemen of the Ag. Panteleimon Police Station has been completed, published on 20/12/2011. http://www.gcr.gr/node/624 6 For more about deaths in the mediterranean see: http:// fortresseurope.blogspot.gr/2006/02/nel-canale-di-sicilia.html 7 http://www.giornaledipuglia.com/2012/06/tragedia-sultraghetto-per-ancona.html 8 http://bari.repubblica.it/cronaca/2012/06/29/news/ sbarco_nella_notte_nel_salento-38197648/ 9 According to the Italian Ministry of Interior, Central Directorate of Immigration and Border Police during 2008 5,644 persons were returned to Greece from the Adriatic sea ports: 2,106 from the port of Ancona, 1,610 from the port of Venice, 1,198 from the port of Bari and 730 from the port of Brindisi. http://fortresseurope. blogspot.gr/2006/01/patras-echr-declared-admissible-case-of.html