Introduction
1. Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) and Stiftung PRO ASYL wish to submit to the Committee
of Ministers of the Council of Europe (hereafter “the Committee”) an update on
selected aspects of the Greek asylum system relevant to the supervision of the
execution of the M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece and Rahimi v. Greece judgments of the
European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), pursuant to Rule 9.2 of the Rules of the
Committee.
2. On 20 June 2023, the Greek government submitted to the Committee of Ministers
(hereafter “the Committee”) an Updated Action Plan on the execution of the M.S.S. /
Rahimi group of cases.1 Several areas of the Action Plan, however, regrettably do not
convey accurate and up-to-date information on the state of the Greek asylum and
reception process.
3. The present Rule 9.2. submission follows previous communications by RSA and Stiftung
PRO ASYL to the Committee.2 It draws predominantly on RSA casework and
documentation of current practice in the implementation of the Greek asylum system, 3
analysis of official statistics released by Greek authorities,4 as well as exchanges thereof
with a dedicated Task Force Migration Management set by the European Commission
in 2020 to monitor compliance with EU asylum standards in Greece.5
4. We recall that supervision of compliance with Articles 3 and 13 of the European
Convention on Human Rights (hereafter “the Convention”) in the context of execution
of the M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece ruling is inextricably linked to the operation of the
European Union (EU) Dublin system, per which Greece is required to take charge of or
take back asylum seekers for whom it is deemed responsible under the criteria of the
Dublin Regulation.6 Reception capacity is particularly relevant to the implementation
of the Dublin Regulation, as discussed below.
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DH-DD(2023)740.
DH-DD(2021)521; DH-DD(2020)723.
Inter alia, Registration of asylum applications in the new mainland RIC in Greece, February
2023, available at: https://shorturl.at/pvX04; RSA & HIAS, The role of the European
Commission in the implementation of the EU asylum acquis on the Greek islands, February
2023, available at: https://shorturl.at/CFPY5; RSA et al., The state of the border procedure
on the Greek islands, September 2022, available at: https://rb.gy/pgnrr; RSA, Greece
arbitrarily deems Turkey a “safe third country” in flagrant violation of rights, February 2022,
available at: https://rb.gy/b5m23.
Notably, RSA, The Greek asylum procedure in figures in 2022: Analysis of main trends in
refugee protection, March 2023, available at: https://shorturl.at/eiEJV; Immigration
detention in 2022: Sharp rise in detention orders, no access to remedies and legal aid in
Greece, April 2023, available at: https://shorturl.at/cuyAJ.
The documents have been made available to RSA by the Directorate-General for
Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) of the European Commission following requests
for public access, notably GESTDEM 2022/2217, 2022/6877 and 2023/1934.
Regulation (EU) No 604/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June
2023 establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State
responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in one of the
Member States by a third-country national or a stateless person [2013] OJ L180/31.
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RSA COMMENTS│ 2023