nationals or statelesspersons as refugees or as persons who otherwise need international 59 protection and the content ofthe protection granted) ; d. the prohibition of removal, in violation of the right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as laid down in international law, is respected; e. the possibility exists to request refugee status and, if found to be a refugee, to receive protection in accordance with the Geneva Convention; f. The applicant has a link with the third country concerned which would reasonably allow them to move to that country. The fulfilment of these conditions must be examined in each individual case and for each applicant separately. When implementing a decision solely based on this Article, the authorities competent to examine an application, namely the Greek Police, must inform the applicant accordingly and must provide them with a document informing the authorities of the third country that the application has not been examined in substance. Where the third country does not permit the applicant to enter its territory, the asylum application must be examined in substance by the authorities competent to receive and examine the asylum application (the Greek Police). In practice, to the knowledge of the author, Greece has had no such cases so far, therefore these legal provisions have not been subject to interpretation. According to Article 21 Presidential Decree 114/10, paragraph 1, safe countries of origin are: a. those included in the common list of safe countries of origin adopted by the Council of the EU b. third countries, other than those included in the EU common list, which are included in the national list of safe countries of origin adopted and updated, for the purpose of the examination of an application for international protection, by the Central Authority, namely the Alien’s Directorate of the Greek Police Headquarters on the basis of an evaluation according to the provisions of Article 23 paragraphs 3 and 4 Presidential Decree 114/10. Such evaluation shall take into account information from other Member States and international organisations, such as UNHCR and the Council of Europe. The national list of countries may also include specific parts of a country, if these fulfil the conditions of Article 23 paragraphs 3 and 4 Presidential Decree 114/10. Such evaluation must be carried out on an annual basis taking into account changes occurring in each country. The national list of countries of origin must be notified by the Central Authority to the European Commission. A third country may be considered according to Article 21 paragraph 2 Presidential Decree 114/2010 as a safe country of origin for a particular applicant only if, upon examination of the asylum application, it is confirmed that the applicant: a. has the nationality of that country or is a stateless person and was formerly a habitual resident of that country, and b. has not submitted any serious grounds for considering the country not to be a safe country of origin in their particular circumstances in terms of their qualification as a refugee in accordance with the present provisions (of Presidential Decree 114/2010) The Central Authority has never had any national list of safe countries nor was an EU common list of safe countries of origin adopted. Therefore, the provision relating to the national list and EU common list of safe countries of origin have not been applied in practice to date and therefore there had been no reference or interpretation of the above mentioned provision of the law in the decision-making practice as such. 59 “Serious harm consists of: death penalty or execution/torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of an applicant in the country of origin/serious and individual threat to a civilian’s life or person by reason of indiscriminate violence in situations of international or internal armed conflict. 36