The appeal submitted before the competent Asylum Unit concerning International Protection Beneficiaries was never explicitly decided, leading to judicial recourse against the implied refusal before the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens. In May 2025, an application for annulment (case No AK668/2025) was filed by GCR before the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens against a negative decision rejecting an application for family reunification concerning the mother of a recognised beneficiary of international protection, who remains stranded in Gaza. The rejection was based on the reasoning that the applicant allegedly had a supportive network in her country of origin and was able to support herself, thereby disregarding the wellknown and ongoing critical humanitarian situation in Gaza, which cannot reasonably sustain such an assessment In the present case. The Asylum Unit of International Protection did not issue a decision on the administrative appeal lodged against the negative first-instance decision. Consequently, GCR filed an application for annulment due to the tacit/implicit rejection of the appeal. More generally, there appears to be a practice within the Asylum Service of not issuing decisions on administrative appeals, in contrast to the practice that previously existed under the jurisdiction of the Hellenic Police Headquarters in matters of family reunification prior to the establishment and operationalisation of the Asylum Service. As of the time of writing, no hearing date has yet been scheduled for the examination of the application for annulment. In 2026, the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens issued judgment AΔ114/2026 concerning an application for annulment against the refusal of the Greek Consulate General in Cairo to issue a family reunification visa to a Palestinian national, spouse of a recognised refugee in Greece. The Court found that the refusal was insufficiently reasoned, based on vague and unsubstantiated findings, and vitiated by a serious procedural defect, namely the failure to keep official minutes of the family members’ interviews at the Consulate. It annulled the decision and referred the case back to the administration for reconsideration. This constitutes the first positive judgment of its kind in Greece concerning the annulment of a consular refusal of a family reunification visa. A Joint Ministerial Decision was issued in August 2018 on the requirements regarding the issuance of visas for family members in the context of family reunification with refugees. 1398 Among other provisions, this Decision sets out a DNA test procedure in order to prove family links and foresees interviews of the family members by the competent Greek Consulate. The entire procedure is described in detail in the relevant handbook of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.1399 The cost of the DNA test is borne by the refugee, unless it can be covered otherwise. 1400 In addition, the DNA kit must be sent from the Forensic Science Department (Διεύθυνση Εγκληματολογικών Ερευνών) that conducts the test, to the Greek Consulate in the diplomatic post of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is a procedure which can be very lengthy. In response to GCR’s request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in December 2024, the latter replied that “In 2024, in one case a DNA test was carried out at the Consulate General of Greece in Istanbul to establish the family relationship of a Syrian national. In other cases, DNA testing was not carried out because either it was not considered necessary following interviews, or because the family relationship had been established through documents, or because the Asylum Service had accepted the family relationship with a positive decision.”1401 During 2025, a DNA test was carried out in one family reunification case handled by GCR. However, it remains unclear how many DNA tests were conducted in general, as the Ministry of Migration and Asylum and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have not yet responded to relevant inquiries submitted in the context of the preparation of the present report at the time of writing. 1398 1399 1400 1401 JMD 47094/2018, Gov. Gazette B/3678/28.08.2018. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Immigration Code Handbook, 2019, 123-127. Ibid. According to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs “In 2023, in only one case a DNA test was carried out to prove the family link in a family reunification case in 2022.”, AIAD, Country report: Greece, 2023 Update, p. 261, available here. Reply of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DH2 Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to GCR’s request for information for the preparation of the updated Annual Report on Greece for 2024 in the framework of the Asylum Information Database (AIDA) project, prot. no. Α.Π.Φ 171/ΑΣ 19 ΣΗΔΕ 195, 06 January 2024. 273