The Asylum Code does not contain special provisions regarding free legal assistance in the fast-track border procedure. The general provisions and practical hurdles regarding legal aid are also applicable in this case (see section on Regular Procedure: Legal Assistance). State-funded legal aid is not provided for the fast-track border procedure at first instance. Therefore, legal assistance at first instance is made available only by NGOs based on capacity and areas of operation, while the scope of these services remains severely limited, bearing in mind the number of applicants subject to the fast-track border procedure. In September 2023, the Athens Bar Association issued an opinion, clarifying that lawyers providing legal advice and assistance to persons arriving in Greece and wishing to apply for international protection – as well as interpreters used to enable communication – can in no way be construed as facilitating irregular entry or stay, in line with CJEU case law. 633 The opinion also pointed out that communication with such parties is covered by client-attorney privilege under lex specialis provisions of the Lawyers’ Code of Conduct.634 From 16 February 2021 to date, and according to the final lists of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum concerning the Registry of the lawyers providing legal assistance to asylum applicants at the second instance, 24 lawyers were appointed on the islands. These lawyers have been appointed to provide free legal aid under the State-funded legal aid scheme at second instance as follows: 12 lawyers on Lesvos, 2 lawyers on Samos, 4 lawyers on Chios, 2 lawyers on Kos, 2 lawyers on Rhodes, and 2 lawyers on Leros.635 Based on legal actors’ observations, including GCR, however, there were usually not that many lawyers operational, due to administrative obstacles and issues. Additionally, lawyers appointed on the islands do not necessarily reside on the islands. Most of the times, the meetings between asylum applicants and lawyers were made through phone or video-call and not with physical presence. Since June 2020, by decision of the administration of the Central Asylum Service, there has been a “[p]rovision of legal assistance through video conference to the Regional Asylum Services of Leros, Samos, Chios and Lesvos due to increased needs in the provision of legal aid services in the second degree to applicants for international protection”. As a result, some asylum applicants reported communication issues with their State-registered lawyers and the short duration of their preparation meetings. In 2025, the total number of appeals lodged in Greece against first instance negative decisions was 12,552, of which only 423 were lodged before the islands’ RAOs and the rest 12,129 in the mainland’s RAOs.636 There are no available statistics with regard to the number of cases for which free legal assistance from Registry Lawyers was requested in the Eastern Aegean Islands’ RAOs. As also mentioned in the Regular Procedure: Legal assistance no tailored State-funded free legal aid scheme exists for submitting judicial remedies before Courts against a second instance negative decision. 6. Accelerated procedure 6.1. General (scope, grounds for accelerated procedures, time limits) The Asylum Code provides that the basic principles and guarantees applicable to the regular procedure also apply in the accelerated procedure and that “the accelerated procedure shall have as a sole effect to reduce the time limits”.637 The law does not provide for a general exemption of vulnerable applicants 633 634 635 637 Bar Association of Athens, Opinion No. 143, 11 September 2023. For more information in English, see ELENA, Greece: Athens Bar Association’s interpretation of the Greek Bar Code on guaranteeing the lawyer-asylum applicant relationship without criminalisation, 12 September 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3Ja4TCL. Ibid. MoMA, Decision No 1836/21, 16 February 2021. MoMA, Statistics, Consolidated Reports - Overview: December 2025 – International Protection | Appendix A, https://tinyurl.com/26ynfarp, table 9a Article 88 (2) Asylum Code. 140