subsequent application, thereby raising concerns as to access to the asylum procedure. An Application for Annulment of the relevant JMD has been filled by GCR and RSA before the Council of State which, following postponement, was still pending at the end of 2024. ❖ Processing times: The number of pending asylum applications decreased by roughly 11% in 2024, with a total of 28,264 applications pending at first (26,623) and second (1,641) instance in December 2024, compared to 32,730 in December 2023 (29,885 at first instance and 2,845 at second instance).7 Yet the lack of detailed data on examination timeframes makes it impossible to assess the extent of delays in 2024. There were reports of ongoing delays of months and at times of even more than year just regarding the conduct of asylum interviews reported at least in Malakasa RIC and Ritsona camp in March 2024.8 ❖ Legal assistance: No state-funded free legal aid is provided at first instance, nor does the law establish an obligation to provide it. A state-funded legal aid scheme operates for the appeal procedure, on the basis of a registry of lawyers managed by the Asylum Service. However, obstacles in accessing free legal aid continued to be reported, inter alia because of the digitalisation of the procedure and the fictitious service of negative first instance decisions. The number of appellants who received free legal assistance by the State was not made available in 2024. ❖ Second instance procedure: Most appeals continued to be rejected at the second instance in 2024. Out of 13,304 total decisions issued by the Independent Appeals Committees, 94.7% were negative. The refugee recognition rate stood at 6.76% and subsidiary protection at 1.28% of inmerit decisions (8,323) at second instance. 4,588 appeals were rejected as "inadmissible," with one in three (1,526) due to being filed after the deadline. Appeals against decisions rejecting applications in the accelerated procedure or as inadmissible under certain grounds do not have automatic suspensive effect. In December 2024, the Greek Council of State ruled that the onemember composition of the Independent Appeals Committees is unconstitutional. ❖ Safe third country inadmissibility: In 2021, Greece designated Türkiye as a "safe third country" for asylum applicants from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Somalia, despite no readmissions to Türkiye occurring since March 2020. This policy continued to be applied in 2024. In 2024, 3,222 inadmissibility decisions were issued per application of the safe third country concept in the case of Türkiye (2,090 at first and 1,132 at second instance). On October 4, 2024, the CJEU ruled that Member States cannot reject asylum applications as inadmissible on safe third country grounds if the applicant will not be allowed to enter that country. Following this, on February 27, 2025, the Greek Council of State annulled the Joint Ministerial Decision designating Türkiye as a safe third country. However, on April 9, 2025, the Greek government issued a new JMD re-designating Türkiye as a safe third country, which GCR and RSA filed a judicial review against on 10 June 2025. ❖ Identification of vulnerability: The low quality of medical and psychosocial screening and delays in vulnerability assessments remained a serious concern in 2024, particularly on the islands. Vulnerabilities are often missed, and individuals go through the asylum procedure without proper assessment. Public health structures specialising in identifying or assisting torture survivors are lacking. Significant shortages of medical and psychosocial staff, as well as interpreters, in RICs and CCACs continued in 2024, hindering proper identification and care. Reception conditions ❖ Statistics: the Reception and Identification Service (RIS) registered a total of 65,072 persons in 2024, the vast majority of whom (51,325) were registered in the border CCACs (Lesvos, Samos, Chios, Leros, Kos) and the Fylakio RIC, and the rest (13,147) in the mainland RICs of Malakasa, Diavata and Sindiki. Slightly more than 1 in 5 persons (21.2% or 13,797) were registered as vulnerable (single parent families with minor children, UAM, victims of torture, persons with serious illnesses, etc). 7 8 MoMA statistics, Consolidated Reports - Overview: December 2024 - International Protection | Appendix A, available at: https://tinyurl.com/3yzvz5sw, table 10a. Solomon, Lost for Words: Lack of interpreters puts asylum seekers’ lives on hold in Greece”, 27 March 2024, available at: https://tinyurl.com/247fkvv6 21