Even if indications of vulnerability arose during an asylum interview, caseworkers did not refer applicants to psychosocial assessments and/or further medical examination at a general hospital, although this is provided for in art. 77 and 41 of Asylum Code.495 In Chios CCAC (Vial camp), the Medical Unit has no doctor since March 2021. In 2023, periodically, the doctor of Leros CCAC Medical Unit was visiting Chios CCAC only to sign pre-completed – by generally unauthorized personnel – vulnerability assessment documents and medical cards with references to apparent vulnerabilities, without carrying out himself a substantive assessment of the medical condition of the asylum applicants.496 According to internal SOPs, circulated within the Asylum Service in the autumn of 2021, asylum seekers from the 5 nationalities affected by the JMD (Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan and Bangladesh), who have entered Greece from Türkiye and have stayed in Greece for a year or more must be considered as not having a special link/connection with the third country (i.e., Türkiye) or that in any case the special link/connection has ceased to exist (See Safe third country). In Kos, from approximately August 2023 to mid-December 2023, probably due to backlog connected to increased new arrivals and personnel shortages, RAO was conducting admissibility interviews only for Syrian nationals.497 Moreover, during the same period, it has been observed that admissibility interviews, in several cases, were limited to superficially examining the criterion of connection of Syrian applicants with Türkiye. Instead, safety or other criteria had not been examined and/or taken into consideration for the decision (i.e., well-founded fear of deportation to country of origin, racist attacks, detention, lack of legal documentation, non-access to healthcare, labour market and education, etc.). Moreover, it has been observed that stateless persons who had one of the 5 countries of the JMD on STC as countries of their habitual residence were included in the admissibility procedure.498 This practice applied despite the fact that this category of asylum seekers (stateless persons with one of the 5 countries of JMD as countries of habitual residence) is not explicitly mentioned in the relevant JMD on STC and Turkiye. Within this context, Palestinians with last habitual residence in Syria were examined under the admissibility procedure. In February 2023, Kos RAO found admissible the asylum application of a stateless single woman of Palestinian origin with last habitual residence in Syria, taking into account “(a) that the applicant remained in Turkey for more than one year, yet without knowing the Turkish language and without having established social, professional or cultural ties with Turkey, (b) that she does not have a family or other support network in Turkey; (c) that she left Turkey at the end of 2022 and remains in Greece throughout this period, the Service concludes that her connection with Turkey cannot be considered sufficient.499 On 10 February 2023, the 16th Independent Appeals Committee annulled the first instance negative decision of Lesvos RAO that considered inadmissible the asylum application of a Somali single woman who survived a shipwreck on 6 October 2022 off Lesvos island, where 16 asylum seeking women died.500 The applicant had to undergo an admissibility interview already on 17 October 2022, only 10 days after the deadly shipwreck, while her vulnerability assessment had not been concluded, nor had it been explored during the interview. The shipwreck was never mentioned by the caseworker, nor was it mentioned in the negative decision that was issued two days after the interview. On appeal, the 16th Appeals Committee, annulled the decision of Lesvos RAO, as it considered that Türkiye is not a safe third country for the Somali single woman and summoned the applicant to an oral hearing on 7 March 2023 to examine her application on the merits. 495 496 497 498 499 500 Ibid. Information shared by Chios UNCHR Field Office. Information obtained during Kos Legal Aid Working Group meeting of 13 December 2023. Information shared by different actors, including GCR, during Legal Aid Working Group meetings, 2023. Decision 97412/2023 issued by Kos RAO (ΠΓΑ Κω 97412/2013). Case represented before Kos RAO by Equal Rights Beyond Borders. Summary of the decision available in Greek in GCR/HIAS/RSA, Greek Asylum Case Law Report Issue 1/2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/2meam8kv. See a relative newsarticle in: Ertnews, Tragedy with 17 dead in a shipwreck in Lesvos - Shocking videos from the shipwreck in Kythera, 6 October 2022, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/4npb6je3. 105