2. Safe third country General rules The “safe third country” concept is a ground for inadmissibility (see Admissibility Procedure). According to Article 91 (1) of the Asylum Code, a country shall be considered a “safe third country” for a specific applicant when all the following criteria are cumulatively fulfilled: (a) The applicant's life and liberty are not threatened for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion; (b) The country respects the principle of non-refoulement, in accordance with the Refugee Convention; (c) The applicant is in no risk of suffering serious harm according to Article 15 of IPA; (d) The country prohibits the removal of an applicant to a country where they risk to be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as defined in international law; (e) The possibility to apply for refugee status exists and, if the applicant is recognised as a refugee, to receive protection in accordance with the Refugee Convention; and (f) The applicant has a connection with that country, under which it would be reasonable for the applicant to move to it806. The transit of the applicant from a third country may be considered as the applicant 's connection with the third country, on the basis of which it would be reasonable to move to it. Yet this needs to be assessed in conjunction with specific circumstances, and in particular: (a) the time of stay there, (b) any contact or objective and subjective possibility of contact with the authorities, for access to work or granting a right of residence, (c) possible, prior to transit, residence such as long-term visits or studies, (d) existence of any, even distant, kinship, (e) existence of social or professional or cultural relations, (f) existence of property, (g) connection with a wider community; (h) knowledge of the language concerned; (i) geographical proximity of the country of origin. Designation of Türkiye and Albania as safe third countries The Asylum Code provides the possibility for the establishment of a list of safe third countries by way of Joint Ministerial Decision.807 On 7 June 2021, a Joint Ministerial Decision of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Migration and Asylum was issued, designating Türkiye as “safe third country” in a national list for asylum applicants originating from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Somalia, without providing any legal reasoning.808 The aforementioned Joint Ministerial Decision was amended by a subsequent JMD under Article 86(3) IPA, previously in force, declaring Türkiye a safe third country for said nationalities, again, without providing any legal reasoning.809 The abovementioned JMD designated Albania as a safe third country for the first time for people entering Greece from the AlbanianGreek borders, and North Macedonia as a safe third country for people entering the Greek territory from the borders between North Macedonia and Greece. 810 Subsequently, on 12 December 2022, a new JMD811 was issued pursuant to which JMD 42799/03.06.2021812, as amended by the JMD 458568/15.12.2021, upon review of the existing information (domestic legislative status of the third 806 807 808 809 810 811 812 In case C-564/18 (LH v Bevándorlási és Menekültügyi Hivatal) of 19 March 2020, the CJEU examined the compatibility of said provision with Article 38(2) of the Recast Asylum Procedures Directive 2013/32/EU and ruled that ‘the transit of the applicant from a third country cannot constitute as such a valid ground in order to be considered that the applicant could reasonably return in this country’, available at: https://bit.ly/3w4pWUe. Moreover, contrary to Article 38(2) of the Directive, national law does not foresee the methodology to be followed by the authorities in order to assess whether a country qualifies as a ‘safe third country’ for an individual applicant. Article 91(3) of the Asylum Code. JMD 42799/03.06.2021, Gov. Gazette 2425/Β/7-6-2021, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/4aGni5U. JMD 458568/15.12.2021, Gov. Gazette 5949/B/16.12.2021, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/4aGnnGK. Ibid. JMD 734214/06.12.2022 (Gov. Gazette 6250/B/12-12-2022), available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/427H9GU. JMD 42799/03.06.2021 (Gov. Gazette 2425/Β/7-6-2021, as above. 175