The Silent Humanitarian Crisis in Greece: Devising Strategies to Improve the Situation of Migrants in Greece WORKSHOP REPORT Asylum, Detention and Borders panelinput Asylum, Detention and Borders: The Failures of the Existing Legal Framework MARIA PAPAMINA, Greek Council for Refugees For the last decade, the EU has initiated a process to establish a common migration and asylum policy with minimum standards and common denominators in respect of international and European human rights standards, including the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the European Convention on Human Rights and the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights. Under EU and domestic law, Greece has a duty to ensure the right of people seeking international protection to apply for asylum in addition to complying with international frameworks upholding fundamental human rights such as the right to equality, to live in dignity, not to be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. Yet following an increased migration flow through Greece’s sea and land borders and the lack of a coherent asylum and migration policy, Greece has been unable to meet its obligations towards migrants. The current EU asylum policy - which is allegedly based on solidarity - is regulated by the Dublin II7 Regulation, which means that asylum seekers’ applications must be examined by the first country of entrance to the European Union. Furthermore the EU asylum and immigration policy is based on a general policy of sealing the EU’s external border to prevent the entry of third-country nationals. The increased inflow of migrants and refugees experienced by member states on the EU’s external borders, and the lack of political will from Greek authorities to establish a fair asylum policy 8 , have culminated in a situation which has all the characteristics of a humanitarian crisis directly affecting the rights of those arriving in Greece to seek protection. The humanitarian and economic situations have further developed increased concerns over social exclusion, racism and xenophobia and the rise of the far right in politics. In response to this critical situation, Greek authorities have put in place repressive measures against irregular migrants including the construction of a wall in the Evros region9, the establishment of Frontex operations as well as the announcement in March 201210 of the building of detention centres instead of reception centres, sweep operations across the country11 and the decision to justify detention on grounds of health concerns12. The aforementioned actions by the government to address irregular migration directly and significantly undermine the fundamental rights of migrants by permitting the implementation of arbitrary and discriminatory practices such as automatic detention at the reception of those seeking asylum, prolonged detention periods, identity checks and arrests based on ethnicity. … 7 8 9 10 11 12 10 The Dublin II Regulation determines the EU Member State responsible to examine an application for asylum seekers seeking international protection under the Geneva Convention and the EU Qualification Directive, within the European Union Joint Greek NGO report, Campaign on access to asylum in Attica, October 2012 See EU Observer, Fortress Europe: a Greek wall close up, 21 December 2012 The Guardian, Greece to open new detention centres for illegal migrants, 29 March 2012 Such as the Xenios Zeus operation launched in August 2012 by the Greek authorities to identify irregular migrants. See PICUM Bulletin, Greece/ Mass arrests, 7,000 identifications and 2,000 arrests, 20 August 2012 and The Guardian, Greek crackdown on illegal immigrants leads to mass arrests, 7 August 2012 Hellenic Republic, Ministry of Public Order and Citizen Protection, 1 April 2012 11