THE DUBLIN II TRAP TRANSFERS OF ASYLUM-SEEKERS TO GREECE 33 Amnesty International has also followed closely a case concerning Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin including four unaccompanied minors, who were returned to the Turkish authorities under the framework of the bilateral Readmission Agreement between Greece and Turkey, despite the fact that they had requested asylum in Greece. On 27 August 2009, Amnesty International wrote a letter to the Minister of Interior and copied the relevant authorities expressing, amongst other issues, its concerns over the case and the failure to respect the principle of non-refoulement. In the letter, Amnesty International also requested clarification about the course of events. The asylum-seekers were among a group of 43 people (40 Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin and three Syrian citizens of Kurdish origin), who were arrested by the Greek coastguard on the northern coast of Crete on 20 July 2009 for irregular entry into the country. On 27 July 2009, 21 of these individuals, including four unaccompanied minors, reportedly expressed their wish to seek asylum but the police officers on duty reportedly refused to register their applications or facilitate their access to the Chania Police Directorate to lodge their asylum applications. With the assistance of lawyers and interpreters from a local NGO and the Chania Bar Association who had visited the 43 individuals on that day, 17 adults wrote and signed short asylum applications and tried to submit them to the police officers on duty. However, according to members of the local NGO and the representatives of the Human Rights Committee of the Chania Bar Association, the police officers responsible for their detention refused to accept their applications. On 28 July 2009, the Human Rights Committee of the Chania Bar Association submitted written asylum applications to the Chania Police Directorate, using a Court Process Server with a letter explaining the grounds for such submission. A few days letter, the Chania Police Directorate returned the asylum applications on the grounds that they were not submitted in person by the applicants themselves. However, on 27 July, without warning, all individuals were transferred under police custody by boat to Athens and from there to Evros in the border region with Turkey on the following day. UNHCR, Amnesty International and various other NGOs including the Chania Migrants Forum and the GCR sent faxes and letters to the competent central and local authorities requesting that the removal of the asylumseekers be halted. However, 18 Turkish asylum-seekers of Kurdish origin, including the four unaccompanied minors, were among the 40 detainees who were handed over to the Turkish authorities on 30 July 2009. Two of the three Syrian asylum-seekers of Kurdish origin were released while the third was detained in the holding facility of the Aliens’ Subdirection of the Attica Police Directorate. The Greek Ombudsman’s office launched an investigation into the incident in October 2009 but had not published its findings as of March 2010.116 UNHCR has located the persons concerned in Turkey after their transfer and noted that “…their return without consideration of their request for international protection highlights the need for safeguards to ensure respect for the principle of non-refoulement”.117 In addition to the cases above, Amnesty International has received a number of allegations from Iraqi and Afghan citizens, including people who stated that they were minors, saying that when they entered Greek territory they were unable to apply for asylum, despite their need for protection, mainly because they were refused access to the Petrou Ralli building. As a result, they were subsequently detained by Greek police as undocumented migrants and were expelled to Turkey where they faced a risk of chain refoulement. For instance, a 17year-old unregistered Afghan asylum-seeker returned to Greece from Italy told Amnesty International delegates: Index: EUR 25/001/2010 Amnesty International March 2010