most cases the Independent Appeals Committees. It should be noted that these decisions of the national authorities, based on the Proposals of the same Advocate General in Cases C 924/19 PPU and C 925/19 PPU, overwhelmingly interpreted, incorrectly, that the condition of effective or not readmission to the third country is reviewed not at the stage of issuance, but at the stage of execution of the decision declaring an application for international protection as inadmissible on the basis of the safe third country clause. It should be recalled that the majority of the Plenary of the CoS, in the above-mentioned judgment, interpreted Article 38 of the Directive, taking into account the provision of Article 18 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which safeguards the right to asylum, in a way that serves the purpose pursued by the Directive. The CJEU's judgment is of major importance because it overturned the practice followed by the Greek authorities for many years – i.e. indiscriminate rejection of asylum applications as inadmissible under the safe third country concept – and put an end to the denial of the rights of thousands of applicants, by prohibiting their rejection when there is no possibility of their readmission to the ‘safe third country’, in this case, Türkiye.538 Despite this lack of return prospect, many RAOs continued to issue inadmissibility decisions based on the existence of a link with Türkiye, disregarding the practical impossibility of returning applicants there.539 For example, in September 2024, Kos RAO issued a decision of inadmissibility in the case of an Afghan national and ruled that the applicant should be returned to Türkiye. The RAO considered that "in this case, the applicant's link to the third country, as defined in paragraph 1, point (st) of Article 91 of Law 4939/2022, can be considered sufficient, as the applicant’s transit through Türkiye, combined with other circumstances relevant to his case (such as, among other factors, the length of his stay in Türkiye – specifically three years – or the fact that the applicant was granted valid residence documents by the Turkish authorities immediately upon entering Türkiye, which were later revoked due to his own fault), constitute grounds on which it can be considered reasonable for him to return there. Furthermore, it has been established that the creation of strong personal ties and a factual situation worthy of protection is not required to meet this criterion. Consequently, the application should be rejected as inadmissible, as the conditions set by the legislation for Türkiye to be considered a "safe third country" for this particular applicant, according to Article 91 of Law 4939/2022, are cumulatively met”. An appeal has been filed before the appeals authority and a relevant decision is pending.540 The JMD 42799 of 3 June 2021 declaring Türkiye as a safe third country was amended by Decision No. 458568/2021 (FEK 5949/16-12-2021) to include Albania and Northern Macedonia as safe third countries for all nationals entering Greece from the countries listed. 541 In December 2022, JMD 734214/6-12-2022 was issued, confirming the continuity and full validity of the amended JMD 542 Respectively, in December 2023, JMD 538595/12-12-2023 (FEK 7063/15-12-2023) was issued, following the 485728/31-10-2023 “Recommendation regarding the establishment of the national list of safe third countries according to Article 91 Law 4939/2022” of the Director of the Asylum Service, repeating the content of the amended JMD 543 There have been no subsequent JMDs issued after December 2023 regarding the designation of safe third countries.544 According to the data released by the ΜοΜΑ for the period from January to December 2024, 2,143 asylum application were found inadmissible at first instance based on the “safe third country” concept, albeit it is not specified to what extent these concerned Albania and Norther Macedonia as opposed to Türkiye. Additionally, 1,167 asylum applications were found inadmissible at second instance based on application of the same concept, of which 11 concerned Albania, 24 Northern Macedonia and the rest Türkiye.545 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 See the CJEU’s judgment in case C-134/23, available here. Greek Council of Refugees, News from the field - The serious dysfunction of the Asylum Service & the reception system continues, November 2024, available here Case represented by GCR before the Appeals Authority. FEK 5949/16-12-2021, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/5dauc7e8. JMD 734214/6-12-2022, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3TMbGY3. JMD 538595/12-12-2023 (FEK 7063/15-12-2023), available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/2nntzpw6. MoMA, Decisions on the national list of safe third countries, available in Greek here. MoMA, Informative Note December 2024 – Appendix A, available at: https://tinyurl.com/yvd7454p, tables 8a and 8b respectively. . 105