The safe third country concept and its application vis à vis Türkiye Article 91(5) Asylum Code, transposing Article 38(4) of Directive 2013/32/EU (Asylum Procedures Directive), provides that where the third country to which an applicant is meant to be returned does not allow the applicant to enter its territory, their application shall be examined on the merits by the Competent Examination Authorities. In practice, the examination of the safe third country concept used to take place under the scope of the fast-track border procedure since 2016. More specifically, up until June 2021 it was applied exclusively to Syrian nationals who fell under the EU-Türkiye Statement, meaning those who had entered Greece via the Aegean islands and who were subject to a geographical restriction. Syrians whose geographical restriction was lifted were then channelled to the mainland and were examined under the regular procedure. The situation changed significantly in 2021 following the designation of Türkiye as a safe third country (STC) for asylum applicants coming from Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan and Bangladesh pursuant to JMD 42799/2021.525 Apart from the numerous concerns that have been repeatedly raised as to whether Türkiye can be considered a “safe third country”,526 an additional significant element of the unfeasibility of this decision has been the fact that Türkiye has not been accepting any readmissions from Greece since March 2020.527 As a consequence, the concept has since been applied in breach of Article 38(4) APD, with applicants whose applications have been/are rejected as inadmissible based on Türkiye’s designation as a “safe third country” ending up in a state of protracted legal limbo, which exposes them to a direct risk of destitution and detention. The issue has consistently drawn the attention of national, UN and EU bodies, including the European Commission, with the previous Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs having on several occasions reiterated the importance of examining the merits of these applications for international protection, in accordance with EU law. As noted by Commissioner Johansson on 7 December 2021 in response to a joint open letter by civil society organisations, “in line with Article 38(4) of the Asylum Procedures Directive, the Greek authorities should ensure that applicants whose applications have been declared inadmissible under the Joint Ministerial Decision and who are not being admitted to Türkiye should be given access to the in-merits asylum procedure”.528 Yet despite the pressure and the ongoing lack of any reasonable prospect of return to Türkiye, the Greek authorities continued examining and rejecting applications on this basis up to at least early 2025, although the practice appears to have stopped since early 2025, following a Rulling by the Greek Council of State (CoS). Namely, on 21 March 2025, the CoS in its decision ΟλΣτΕ 1048/2025 annulled the JMD designating Türkiye as a “safe third country”, following applications for annulment against the Joint Ministerial Decision 42799/2021 submitted and legally represented by the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) and Refugee Support Aegean (RSA).529 The Court held that the JMD, and thus, the national list of safe third countries, should be annulled in respect of the designation of Türkiye as a safe third country, because there was not sufficient 525 526 527 528 529 Joint Ministerial Decision (JMD) 42799/2021, Gov. Gazette 2425/Β/7-6-2021, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/2z8588nb . Indicatively see: GCR, Greece deems Turkey ‘safe’, but refugees are not: The substantive examination of asylum applications is the only safe solution for refugees, 14 June 2021, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3E3qgCe and Refugee Support Aegean, Joint Press Release, Eight Years of Failure of the EU – Turkey deal : the “safe third country” concept comes under scrutiny by the Court of Justice of the European Union, 14 March 2024, available here. For instance, see MoMA, New request from Greece for the return of 1.908 illegal economic migrants to Türkiye, 28 July 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3rl5bhy; European Commission, Commission Staff Working Document: Türkiye 2020 Report, 6 October 2020, available here: https://bit.ly/3xgt4aK, 48. For a detailed overview, see previous AIDA reports on Greece, available here. GCR, Joint Press Release ‘The Council of State annuls the designation of Turkey as a 'safe third country' for asylum seekers’, 27 March 2025, available at: https://tinyurl.com/2tu6szka. 112