right to request international protection in a language they understand, and on the other hand guarantees of family unity, complete information, also in writing, in their language and in the presence of their attorney in case of withdrawal. This issue was raised by the Ombudsman in the case of six Iraqi women held separately from male members of their family at the Police Department of Messinia, while their readmission was pending (case No. 220665/2016). The clarifications on the existence of written information, an interpreter, etc., requested from the Hellenic Police on 7 November 2016, could not be answered up to the completion of this report. The relevant questions on the case of readmission to Turkey on 20.10.2016 of Syrian citizens who claimed that they had submitted a statement of intention for the submission of an asylum application in Leros (case No. 220930/2016) also remained unanswered. Especially as regards the guarantees for access to asylum of detainees, with Article 46 of Law 4375/2016, with which our domestic law was harmonized with relevant Article 8 of Directive 2013/33/EU, several recommendations submitted by the Ombudsman were adopted,105 such as detention remaining a measure of exception against those submitting an international protection application while detained, requiring a reasoned judgement, with prior evaluation on an individual basis on the non-application of alternative measures, its extension being subject to judicial control, establishing a maximum time limit for detaining minors, etc. Finally, the Ombudsman submitted in October a detailed opinion to the Ministry of Migration Policy on the draft law on the conditions of reception of applicants for international protection according to Directive 2013/33/EU (recast 29.6.2014), with proposals for improving protection. Specifically it recommended that there is a clear call to include in the definition of vulnerable persons with special reception needs requiring international protection, also cases of victims of violence on grounds of gender, sexual orientation or gender identity, with references to the concepts of Article 10 of PD 141/2013. It should be noted however that it is very positive that the Asylum Service keeps information on victims of torture, rape or other form of sexual violence, something which will facilitate their special treatment, in contrast to other Member States.106 The independent authority further noted on our country’s obligation under the aforementioned Directive to establish mechanisms for monitoring and scrutinising the standards of the conditions of the reception of asylum seekers, and to inform the European Commission, that it would be useful to include the Ombudsman as the primary independent institution, whose competence already covers the external monitoring of the reception conditions. 4.5. Relocation of asylum seekers to other Member States A key provision of the EU-Turkey Statement of 18.3.2016107 was the resettlement of one Syrian from Turkey to the EU for each Syrian who would return to Greece from Turkey after 20.3.2016.108 This clause was based on compliance with the commitments of the Member States on 20.7.2015 to accept the relocation of asylum seekers from Greece and Italy, commitments that corresponded on 18 March 2016 to 18,000 places, as well as the additional distribution of 54,000 new relocation places.109 The European Commission, in assessing the resettlement of 2,716 Syrians from Turkey in 2016 to eight Member States,110 considers that there is a positive pace that should continue.111 The Ombudsman however observes that 13,450 applications of Member States for resettlement from Turkey in 2016 and 2017112 cannot be considered sufficient based on the aforementioned commitments as well as the number of Syrians that seek international protection. relevant records in contrast to other 13 Member States which are mentioned in the relevant report “Current migration situation in the EU: Torture, trauma and its possible impact on drug use”, FRA, February 2017 http://fra.europa.eu/en/ publication/2017/february-monthly-migration-focus-torture 107 http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/03/18-euturkey-statement/ 108 801 people returned from Greece with the EU-Turkey readmission procedure in 2016 https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/ policies/european-agenda-migration/press-material/docs/state_of_play_-_euturkey_en.pdf 109 With Council Decision (EU) 2016/1754 of 29.9.2016, Member States were allowed to implement their commitments under decision (EU) 2015/1601 as regards the 54,000 places with selection of the resettlement of Syrian applicants for international protection from Turkey instead of the relocation of applicants from Italy or Greece. 110 Up to 5.12.2016 in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Sweden. 105 Annual Report 2014, pg. 177-178. 111 https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/sites/near/ files/20161208-4th_report_on_the_progress_made_in_the_implementation_ of_the_eu-turkey_statement_en_0.pdf It could be observed that this number is actually more than three times higher than the number of 801 persons that returned to Turkey in 2016. Of course, it falls far behind the total number of 54,000 places and continues to be lower than the number of pending applications, according to the statistics of the same Commission report. 106 In 2016, 577 asylum seekers were recorded as victims of torture, rape or sexual violence, 190 of which were women. According to FRA, only Greece keeps 112 Up to 20.12.2016, according to the internal Communication of the European Commission “on the migration crisis”. 35