submit a residence certificate before the Appeals Authority up to the day before the examination of their
appeal. No mention was made of the obligation to apply for the certificate no earlier than three days before
the date of examination of the appeal. As a result, in several cases, appellants had submitted outdated
residence certificates before the Appeals Authority, and, subsequently, in some of these cases, appeals
were rejected by the Appeals Committee (with no examination either of the admissibility or the merits of
the asylum applications) on the grounds of the submission of an out-of-date residence certificate by the
Head of the RIC. GCR has introduced cases such as these before the Greek administrative courts. In
May 2023, the Administrative Court of Athens annulled the decision of the 2 nd Appeals Committee that
had rejected an applicant’s appeal on the grounds of the submission of an out-of-date residence
certificate.627 In March 2025, in a case legally represented by GCR, another application for annulment
was discussed before the Administrative Court against a decision of an Appeals Committee that had
rejected the appeals of a Syrian family on the grounds of the submission of an out-of-date residence
certificate; the decision is still pending.628
Similarly, to the concerns raised under the Regular procedure as regards the severity of these new
procedural requirements, serious concerns with regard to the effectiveness of the remedy and the risk of
a violation of the principle of non-refoulement are also applicable to appeals in the context of fast-track
border procedures.
Suspensive effect
Appeals before the Appeals Committees no longer have automatic suspensive effect as a general rule.
The automatic suspensive effect of appeals depends on the type of decision challenged by the applicant
(see Admissibility Procedure: Appeal and Accelerated Procedure: Appeal). With regard to applications
rejected at first instance within the framework of the fast-track border procedure, the Asylum Code states,
that a derogation from automatic suspensive effect of appeals can only be ordered provided that the
individual benefits from the necessary assistance of an interpreter, legal assistance and at least one week
to prepare and file a relevant application before the Appeals Committee reasoning why they should be
granted with the right to remain in the Greek territory. 629
It should be noted that Article 110(3) Asylum Code has incorrectly transposed Art 46(7) of the recast
Asylum Procedures Directive. Instead of cross-referring to Article 110(2) Asylum Code on the categories
of appeals stripped of automatic suspensive effect, Article 110(3) Asylum Code provides that “the
possibility to derogate from the right to remain” may be applied in border procedures subject to
requirements including interpretation, legal assistance and at least one week. Accordingly, the law
incorrectly suggests that the derogation from the right to remain on the territory may be imposed in any
decision taken in a border procedure, insofar as the above guarantees are complied with in practice in
2024, the derogation from the right to remain has been generally applied to the fast-track border procedure
on the Eastern Aegean islands, including in “safe third country” cases which should have suspensive
appeals according to the law.630 In any case, as it has been already mentioned, where a separate
application for suspension of removal is submitted in parallel with the appeal, the Appeals Committees
proceed with the examination of the suspension application on the same day that the appeal is being
examined.
Judicial review
The general provisions regarding judicial review, as amended in 2018 and 2019, are also applicable under
the fast-track border procedure, as are concerns raised with regard to the effectiveness of the remedy
(see Regular Procedure: Appeal).An application for annulment before the Administrative Court does not
have automatic suspensive effect, even if combined with an application for suspension. Suspensive effect
627
628
629
630
Decision No ΑΔ940/31-5-2023 issued by the Administrative Court of Athens.
Application for Annulment no. ΑΚ687/2020, Administrative Court of Athens.
Article 110(3) Asylum Code.
According to input provided by RSA.
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