50 8.4.2. Lack of legal aid According to Greek law, no legal aid is provided by the state to migrants in detention. Nor are asylum seekers granted legal aid during the asylum procedure.161 According to Law 3907/2011162, starting from December 24, 2011, free legal aid may under certain circumstances be provided for detainees wishing to challenge their deportation – not their detention – before the court (annulment application). Yet, there are great concerns on the effectiveness of this legal aid scheme, bearing in mind the difficulties with the implementation of Law 3226/2004 and PD 81/2009, regarding legal aid to asylum seekers before the competent court.163 The most important problems seem to be the conditions set by the law for providing legal aid164, low incentives for lawyers to engage in the legal aid scheme165, and the obstacles detainees might face for accessing the legal aid scheme166. 8.4.3. Legal aid provided by NGOs NGOs who wish to inform the detainees about their right to see a lawyer, and provide legal aid to them, have to ask for a special permit at the Citizen Protection Ministry. However, access is not always granted. The Greek Council for Refugees runs a program of legal assistance to asylum seekers in Evros and Rhodopi prefectures’ detention centres namely the ones under the competence of Alexandroupolis, Orestiada and Rhodopi police directorates. In Alexandroupolis, the program run for one month in October 2010 (a lawyer without provided interpretation) and then re-started in March 2011 with one full-time and two part-time lawyers (until June 2011) and no interpreters. It was resumed in September with one part-time lawyer but again without any interpreter. 161 Art 11, PD 114/2010 states that »applicants have the right to consult, at their own cost, a lawyer or other counsellor on matters relating to their applications.« 162 Article 28, par. 4 of Law 3907/2011 163 See: Complaint of Greek NGOs to the European Commission, 16 November 2009. http://omadadikigorwnenglish.blogspot.com/2009/11/reportto-european-commission-by-greek.html#more 164 According to article 2 of Law 3226/2004, a complainant who wants to benefit from the legal aid scheme needs to file an application to the competent court, briefly stating the subject-matter of his/her claim and confirming that he/she lacks any income. A judge decides as to whether the applicant should be granted legal aid. In addition, according to Law 3907/2011, for legal aid to be granted the annulment applica- 8. Lack of legal safeguards In Orestiada, the programme was run from mid-March 2011 to the end of July. It included two lawyers and two interpreters (Arabic and Farsi). From April 20 until May 4, access to the detainees was restricted.On July 15, 2011 the access was denied again. The lawyers did not regain access before October 2011 and are currently working with one interpreter (Farsi). In Rhodopi, the programme was implemented from October 2010 until June 2011, with one lawyer that was assisted by one interpreter (Arabic) only from February until May. In June, the lawyer was working without interpreter and with limited access to very few detainees after presenting their names to the police. The program started again in September, but only in October did the lawyer regain access. An interpreter was hired in November. No other NGO than GCR provides free legal aid to detainees in Evros prefecture. Nonetheless, GCR lawyers can cover but some cases, and their assistance is restricted to asylum seekers. Owing to the huge number of detainees, the inhuman detention conditions, the temporariness of the programmes and the obstacles faced lawyers on the part of the authorities, the legal aid provided is limited to the most urgent legal actions. In addition, funding delays lead to irregularities in the payment of the lawyers and the interpreters of the programmes. The authorities delay the allocation of funds under the European Refugee Fund (ERF), which causes serious problems in implementing the programmes. Again and again, the authorities in Orestiada complained about the »increased« number of detainees who wanted to claim asylum. What is more, they repeatedly asked the GCRlawyers not to inform the detainees about their pending deportations and their right to claim asylum. From July 15, tion must be admissible. These requirements imply the drafting of the annulment application by a lawyer. A detainee may not be expected to be able to draft, and also lodge before the competent judicial authorities in Alexandroupolis or Komotini, a legal document, especially in Greek language, given that he/she is not familiar with the Greek legal system. 165 Lawyers often have little motivation to have themselves registered in the legal aid catalogues of the Bar Associations, due to the long time it takes for the reimbursement of the legal aid by the Ministry of Justice (more than one year), and due to the low fees provided. 166 No guarantee for accessing the legal aid scheme is given. A detainee in Evros area may not be able to have access to relevant information, to a telephone, or to a list of lawyers.