24 THE DUBLIN II TRAP TRANSFERS OF ASYLUM-SEEKERS TO GREECE According to Greek law, a person applying for asylum can make a declaration to the police, when they submit their asylum application, that they are homeless (PD 220/2007 Article 6). Indeed, this declaration of homelessness is a necessary step, without which the Ministry of Interior (and since October 2009, the Ministry of Citizens’ Protection) will not notify the Ministry of Health to seek accommodation for the asylum-seeker.83 In practice the police do not always inform asylum-seekers of their right, if homeless, to be enrolled in the relevant list of the Ministry of Health so as to be provided with accommodation and do not automatically accept such declarations. Without an address registered on the asylum application card, the pink card will not be renewed after six months and the applicant will not be in possession of a document which legally entitles him or her to stay in the country. This results in a risk of the asylum-seeker being arrested, detained and even deported. Six of the Dublin II returnees interviewed by Amnesty International had experienced problems renewing their pink cards. Some had tried to renew their card in Patras in 2008 but the police would not renew their card since they were homeless and living in a camp, and could not provide a permanent address.84 Although, in law, homelessness should not be a barrier to renewal of the card, in practice the police generally refuse to register individuals as “homeless”. In the few cases where they have registered homeless asylum-seekers, they usually have only done so after the intervention of a third party, such as an NGO.85 M., an asylum-seeker from Iran, who was transferred from Belgium at the end of 2008, was not allowed to register on his card the address of the hotel where he was staying because he was not renting an apartment. The fact that he was staying at a hotel was considered insufficient. The police finally permitted him to register his address as the name of the hotel after Amnesty International intervened. The homelessness of Dublin II returnees has wider implications. According to UNHCR, Dublin II returnees who could not provide an address upon arrival in Greece and who were notified by the Greek authorities on the status of their asylum application through the “Notification of Persons of Unknown Residence Procedure”, were particularly disadvantaged.86 The absence of an effective notification mechanism resulted in returnees not being able to follow up the outcome of their asylum applications, and risked missing the deadline to lodge their appeal according to the requirements of the former system (PD 90/2008). Under the new system (PD 81/2009), Dublin II returnees are asked not only to report their address but also to provide a rental contract or official notice from the person who rents the flat where they are living. They receive their pink cards from the Asylum Department at Petrou Ralli, but the asylum application cards will not be supplied unless they can produce this evidence of their address. This condition constitutes yet another barrier to access to the asylum procedure. A six-member Iraqi family, returned to Greece from the Netherlands in late 2009, was not given accommodation by the state. In order to be provided with pink cards, the family was asked by the Asylum Department not only to provide the police with its address but also to submit a rental contract. The family, who had no financial resources, was provided with accommodation through other Iraqi asylum-seekers who paid their rent, and they were finally issued with pink cards. Due to the hardship of the situation in which they found themselves, the Amnesty International March 2010 Index: EUR 25/001/2010