for the operation of civil society organisations in the
Facilities and their certification.
• B eyond the legal issues raised by the informal operation
of these facilities and the failure to issue the regulatory
acts required for their establishment and operation,254
this pending issue is the main reason for the creation
of organisational dysfunctions, due to the lack of
effective coordination of the involved agencies and the
inability to monitor and attribute liability in cases where
serious omissions are discovered. The Ombudsman
further recommends: a) The official establishment of all
accommodation facilities and the issue of the stipulated
General Rules of Operation and the Internal Rules; b) the
completion of the preparation of a Registry of accredited
agencies by the Directorate for Reception of the General
Secretariat for Reception and its appropriate use.
2.2. The deviation
between provision
and implementation
of the rules
This deviation is not of
course a characteristic only
of the migration legislation,
but it entails in this case
onerous restrictions of the
rights of the irregular migrants and asylum applicants.
The most characteristic example over time is that the
first reception procedures are not implemented with all
new arrivals to the islands, contrary to the mandates of
Law 3907/2011.255 The practical result of this was that
vulnerable individuals (minors, etc.) ended up in Pre-removal
Centers, whereas their detention, at least up to now, is
prohibited. As mentioned above, the medical examination
card of each new arrival is still a goal at the hotspots, despite
the provisions of Law 3907/2011.
A second typical example is the way in which the legislative
provision on lodging asylum applications in person
was implemented in practice. The lodging via Skype
mentioned above, caused more of an obstacle rather than
the rationalisation of the access. The obligation for the
lodging in person, also led to the violation of the rule of
not detaining asylum applicants for more than 3 months
254 It is noted that the Ministry of National Defence has undertaken to
take actions and enter into contracts for the establishment, construction
and maintenance of the facilities, as well as specific issues of their operation
(transportation, provision of food, accommodation, health care), according to Law
4368/2016, Article 96, but the decisions for the establishment of all types of
facilities, the appointment of directors and their general operation belong to the
competence of the Ministry of Migration Policy.
255 See Annual Report 2014, pg. 152 et seq.
(Law 4375/2016), since the detention time counts from
the registration of the application by the Asylum Service,
for which there is a varying waiting time, and not from
the applicant’s statement to the police authorities that
he/she wishes to lodge a relevant application. Moreover,
cases of failure to register in time the intention to lodge
an asylum application were also reported. In at least two
cases investigated by the Ombudsman, this omission
appears to have resulted in the inclusion of the applicants in
readmission procedures before their asylum application was
examined (in more detail, see Chapter A5.2.).
As regards the elementary rights of administrative
detainees, a typical example of a case where the rules are
not implemented is the lack of access to open-air exercise
at the police station cells, with the exception of the Preremoval Centers. However, the most important provision
also in EU legislation, which is not implemented in practice,
as mentioned in the relevant chapter (A5), is the due
diligence for the fast-track processing of the return to the
country of origin of the third-country national, which would
reduce the detention time. As regards the return procedure
itself, the timely information, at least 24 hours in advance,
is a dead letter of the European Return Handbook in all
return/readmission procedures.
It is also characteristic that the seamless educational
integration of the refugee populations living in the country
is still hindered by the lack of a cohesive framework. The
Greek State tried, especially since early 2016, to introduce
an adequate framework for the seamless educational
integration of the refugee populations living in the country,
taking into consideration the added needs that had emerged.
The lack of prior experience, the gradual formulation of the
curriculum under pressure, the difficulties that emerged
and continue to emerge during its implementation, the
fluidity of the population and the diverse needs, as well as
the problems of coordination between the co-competent
ministries or services, resulted to a great extent in the issue
of a large number of legislation acts that frequently regulate
the same issue, with amendments, corrections or additions.
To this abundance of regulations is added a series of
circulars that clarify separate issues, enhancing however the
insecurity of the involved persons, with regard to the current
framework. On the contrary, but for the same reasons as a
rule, the regulatory framework remains incomplete in certain
separate issues that are still not regulated, despite the fact
that the 2016-2017 school year - when the plan for the
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