3.2. Personal interview Indicators: Admissibility Procedure: Personal Interview Same as regular procedure 1. Is a personal interview of the asylum applicant in most cases conducted in practice in the admissibility procedure? Yes No ❖ If so, are questions limited to nationality, identity, travel route? Depends on grounds ❖ If so, are interpreters available in practice, for interviews? Yes No 2. Are interviews conducted through video conferencing? Frequently Rarely Never The conduct of an interview on the admissibility procedure varies depending on the admissibility ground examined. According to Article 94(2) Asylum Code, as a rule, no interview should be held during the preliminary examination of a subsequent application. The examination of a subsequent application takes place only through written submissions and submitted documents together with the elements of the first asylum application. The interview is conducted only if the subsequent application for asylum is deemed admissible (see section on Subsequent Applications). As regards the process for Dublin cases, see section on Dublin. Personal interviews in cases examined under the “safe third country” concept focus on the circumstances that the applicants face in Türkiye and specifically on: ❖ whether they have applied for international protection in Türkiye and; ❖ if not, which reasons prevented them from doing so; ❖ whether they have family and friends in Türkiye; ❖ how long they remained in Türkiye; ❖ if they had access to work, housing, education and health care; ❖ and in general, if Türkiye is a safe country for them. Significant emphasis has been placed on evaluating the applicant's connection to Türkiye. This assessment considers factors such as the duration of their residence in Türkiye and the presence of family members within the country. In many instances, the presence of a link serves as the sole and determining factor in deciding admissibility or inadmissibility. According to internal SOPs, circulated within the Asylum Service in the autumn of 2021, asylum applicants from the 5 nationalities affected by the JMD (Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan and Bangladesh), who have entered Greece from Türkiye and have stayed in Greece for a year or more must be considered as not having a special link/connection with the third country (i.e., Türkiye) or that in any case the special link/connection has ceased to exist (See Safe third country). In some cases, the above-mentioned internal directive is strictly applied without taking into account any substantive criteria. As a result, asylum applications from people who are only a few days away from the end of their one-year stay in Greece can be rejected as inadmissible. In September 2024, the Appeals Authority rejected the appeal of an asylum applicant who had left Türkiye and stayed in Greece for one year minus six days from the date of the Appeals Authority's decision.543 Moreover, it has been observed that stateless persons who had one of the 5 countries of the JMD on STC as their country of former habitual residence continued to be included in the admissibility procedure in 2024.544 This practice applied despite the fact that this category of asylum applicants is not explicitly mentioned in the relevant JMD designating Türkiye as an STC. In this context, Palestinians with last habitual residence in Syria were examined under the admissibility procedure. 543 544 Case represented by GCR before the Kos Asylum Services and the Appeals Authorities. Information shared by different actors, including GCR, during Legal Aid Working Group meetings, 2023. 116