Out of the spotlight: The rights of foreigners and minorities are still a grey area recognition rate for the first nine months of the year was 0.3 per cent while the granting of protection status (refugee or otherwise) was 0.9 per cent. Both of these figures were the lowest of all the 148 countries considered by UNHCR in its global overview of refugee populations in 2004. 4 At the same time, comparative research shows that Greece has some of the lowest asylum application rates in Europe. 5 In fact, the local branch of UNHCR in Greece expressed great concern at the sharp drop in the rates of recognition in recent years, having documented a figure of 0.06 per cent recognition rate for the previous year and 0.3 per cent for 2003, a 370 per cent drop from the 11.2 per cent rate of 2001. 6 Commenting on these low rates of recognition in a position paper published in November 2004, 7 the UNHCR urged the Greek authorities to review their refugee status determination procedures and pointed to a series of problems in the current implementation of national and international legislation on this issue. These practices were also documented in January 2005, during Amnesty International’s visit to Greece. The legal framework currently in force is briefly reviewed in the next section. Article 1 of the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees adopted in 1951 (known as ‘the Refugee Convention’) defines a “refugee” as a person who “owing to well-founded fear 4 UNHCR, “2004 Global Refugee Trends: Over view of Refugee Populations, New Arrivals, Durable Solutions, Asylum-seekers, Stateless and Other persons of concern to UNHCR”, 17 June 2005, Population and Geographical Data Section Division of Operational Support, UNHCR, Geneva. 5 “Why Greece is Not a Safe Host Country for Refugees”, Skordas and Sitaropoulos, International Journal of Refugee Law, 2004 (16:1), pp 27, 49. 6 (1997-2004) [Asylum Statistics for Greece (1997-2004)], UNHCR, Greece 2005. 7 UNHCR, Position on important aspects of refugee protection in Greece, November 2004: 4. Amnesty International 5 October 2005 6 of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.” Under this Convention states have an obligation to protect people who risk being subjected to serious human rights abuses if they are forcibly returned to their country of origin, i.e. the principle of non-refoulement (under Article 33.1). In addition, General Recommendation No.30: Discrimination Against Non Citizens of 01 October 2004 of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which clarified the application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination to noncitizens, noted the obligation of states parties to “ensure that non-citizens are not returned or removed to a country or territory where they are at risk of being subject to serious human rights abuses, including torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” 1.2 The legal framework Greece has ratified both the Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol. In addition, it has ratified other relevant international conventions such as: • the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) • the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) • the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination • the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture) AI Index: EUR 25/016/2005