Overview of the main changes since the previous report update
The report was previously updated in December 2013.
The Directors of First Reception Centres (FRC-Screening Centres) can decide on the retention
of the aliens staying at the FRC. A Regulation on the Appeals Authority under the Asylum
Service was in force untill January 2014.
The validity of ID cards for asylum seekers is four months, except for those coming from
Albania, Bangladesh, Egypt, Georgia and Pakistan. The validity of their ID cars is 45 days.
According to a Decision of the Minister of Public Order and the Protection of Citizen which
endorsed Legal Opinion no. 44/2014 of the Legal Council of the State, after the 18-month
maximum detention period under EU law, a new detention order can be issued without time limit
if the alien does not cooperate with the authorities to get repatriated.
The Greek Council for Refugees lodged the first appeal against the “endless detention
duration”. The Athens Administrative Court of First Instance ruled on 23 May 2014 (Decision
2255/23.5.2014) that indefinite detention (in the form of compulsory stay in a detention centre
as defined by the Legal Council of the State Opinion 44/2014) is unlawful. As a consequence,
an Afghan Refugee that had already been in detention for 18 months was released.
Some decisions at second instance have stopped returns from Greece to Bulgaria under the
Dublin Regulation. Nevertheless, during the last few months there has been an increasing
number of decisions of first instance and some of second instance deciding on returns to
Bulgaria under Dublin, even for Victims of Torture.
Since September 2013 there are decisions rendered by the Secretary General of the Ministry,
which do not renew subsidiary protection or status on humanitarian grounds. In the frame of
these decisions, the Secretary examines, on a discretionary basis, the substance of the
decision to grant subsidiary protection or humanitarian status. Pending the Secretary General’s
processing of their application for the renewal of their subsidiary protection or humanitarian
status (which takes over six months), as well as the subsequent Appeal Committee’s
examination of the appeal against these negative decisions, the concerned individuals lose their
right to work and do not have access to any medical treatment.
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