Court of Human Rights. In addition, a number of the Geneva-based treaty bodies
criticized Greece’s practices. In 2015, for example, the UN Human Rights Committee
urged Greece to ensure that all detention decisions be based on the individual
circumstances of the person and consider less invasive means to achieve the same
end.9 Previously, in 2012, the Committee against Torture recommended that Greece
ensure that administrative detention on the grounds of irregular entry not be applied to
asylum seekers and that they should be detained only in exceptional circumstances or
as a measure of last resort, on grounds specifically prescribed by law.10
LAWS, POLICIES, PRACTICES
Key norms. Immigration detention in Greece is regulated by three pieces of legislation:
(1) Law 3386/2005 on the Entry, Residence and Social Integration of Third-Country
Nationals on Greek Territory, adopted in 2005 and amended several times, provides
Greece’s principle legal framework governing the entry and departure of non-citizens,
including detention.
(2) 2011’s Law 3907/2011 on the Establishment of an Asylum Service and a First
Reception Service transposed the EU Returns Directive in Greek legislation and sets out
the framework for pre-removal detention. Like Malta, Greece took advantage of the
option offered in the directive not to apply it to persons apprehended or intercepted in
connection with irregular border crossings, thereby preventing such individuals from
accessing provisions in the directive—including alternatives to detention.
(3) Law 4375/2015 on the organisation and operation of the Asylum Service, the
Appeals Authority, the Reception and Identification Service, the establishment of the
General Secretariat for Reception, the transposition into Greek legislation of the
provisions was adopted in 2016 to implement the EU-Turkey deal. This law transposed
the EU Asylum Procedures Directive, thoroughly changing the asylum institutional
framework and regulating the detention of asylum seekers.
Grounds for detention. Greek law establishes three grounds warranting pre-removal
detention. Non-citizens may be detained if they: (1) display a risk of absconding;; (2)
avoid or hamper the preparation of the return or removal process;; or (3) present a threat
to public order or national security (Law 3386/2005, article 76(3);; Law 3907/2011, article
30(1)). While the first two grounds reflect the terms of the Returns Directive, detention
on account of a threat to public order is not included in the Directive. In the Kadzoev
Greece,” CRC/C/GRC/CO/2-3, 13 August 2012,
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/ENACARegion/Pages/GRIndex.aspx;; Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination, “Concluding observations on the twentieth to twenty-second periodic reports of Greece,”
CERD/C/GRC/CO/20-22, 3 October 2016, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/ENACARegion/Pages/GRIndex.aspx.
9
Human Rights Committee, “Concluding observations on the second periodic report of Greece,” CCPR/C/GRC/CO/2,
3 December 2015, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/ENACARegion/Pages/GRIndex.aspx.
10
Committee against Torture, “Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 19 of the
Convention: Concluding observations of the Committee against Torture: Greece,” CAT/C/GRC/CO/5-6, 27 June 2012,
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/ENACARegion/Pages/GRIndex.aspx.
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