THE DUBLIN II TRAP TRANSFERS OF ASYLUM-SEEKERS TO GREECE 54 105 The interviewee in this case had applied for asylum before July 2009 and the applicable deadline at that time for filing an appeal against a negative decision at first instance was 30 days. 106 See Article 33(1) of the Refugee Convention, Article 7 of the ICCPR, Article 3 of the Convention against Torture and Article 3 of the ECHR. 107 UNHCR, “Q&A: Greece’s new immigration policies based on ’dangerous generalizations’”, 10 July 2009. 108 Human Rights Watch, Stuck in a Revolving Door, 26 November 2008. 109 Pro Asyl, Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants, Athens, The Truth May Be Bitter But it Must Be Told, 29 October 2007. 110 Norwegian Helsinki Committee and AITIMA, Out of the Back Door: The Dublin II Regulation and illegal deportations from Greece, 22 October 2009. 111 Ethnos, Evdomi, “Allegations of refoulement of migrants to Turkey”, 7 October 2008; Avgi, “Refoulement to Turkey”, 19 November 2008. 112 Such returns also included pushbacks at the border and informal returns (where no formal decision to remove the person from Greek territory was taken) of unregistered asylum-seekers. 113 This case was documented in Amnesty International’s report, Greece: Out of the Spotlight: The rights of foreigners and minorities are still a grey area, EUR 25/016/2005, at 25-27. 114 Amnesty International Greece press release, “Greece should provide international protection to the victims of political persecutions”, 12 May 2009 115 Interview with Médecins du Monde in October 2009. They confirmed that they had to intervene and verify the asylum-seeker’s identity in order for her to be released from the police station. 116 Kathimerini, 9 October 2009. 117 UNHCR, Observations on Greece as a country of Asylum, December 2009, p.5. 118 Turkey: Stranded: Refugees in Turkey denied protection (EUR 44/001/2009), and Amnesty International, Denied protection in Turkey refugees unlawfully detained, 28 September 2009. 119 According to the statistics provided to UNHCR by the Ministry of Interior, in the first seven months of 2009 approximately 20,000 asylum applications (19,640 at the first instance, 810 at the second instance) were examined, of which 20 asylum claims were granted in total and three were granted to Iraqi nationals. Over the same period, 24 asylum-seekers were granted humanitarian status (including those whose status was renewed), seven of which were Iraqi nationals, while 61 received subsidiary protection (under PD 90/2008) of which 12 were Iraqi nationals. 120 See UNHCR, Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum-Seekers, August 2007, and UNHCR, Return Advisory and Position on International Protection Needs of Iraqis Outside Iraq, December 2006. 121 Amnesty International considers that it is currently premature, while the status of Kirkuk has yet to be finally and peacefully resolved, to return any individual from the Kurdistan region of Iraq to that region, even when such an individual has been found not to be in need of international protection, following full and fair asylum procedures, and after having had their asylum claim rejected in a final appeal and having been found ineligible for complementary forms of protection. Even when the status of Kirkuk has been finally resolved and peaceful conditions prevail, states should return such individuals to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq only when all of the following conditions apply:     The individual must have a close and enduring link with the Kurdistan region of Iraq which can provide them with a reasonable opportunity of reintegrating; No one should be returned to a situation where they would become internally displaced; Returns should be orderly and must take into account the capacity of the Kurdistan Regional Government to assist returnees in reintegrating; Returning governments should take due account of the effect that large scale returns could have on the stability of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, given its limited absorption capacity, particularly with regard to housing. Amnesty International March 2010 Index: EUR 25/001/2010