either did not respond to the interventions or they responded claiming that they could not locate said groups. Despite the Court’s order to the Greek government not to remove the asylum seekers from the country’s territory and provide them with food, water and proper medical care, most of these people were pushed back to Turkey. THE ECtHR’S INTERIM MEASURES ARE BINDING ON THE STATE CONCERNED • • • The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), under Rule 39 of its Rules of Court, grants requests for interim measures only on an exceptional basis, when applicants would otherwise face a real risk of serious and irreversible harm. Such measures are then indicated to the respective Government. 39 State Parties are under an obligation to comply with the Court’s interim measures. According to Article 34 of the ECHR: “The Court may receive applications from any person, non-governmental organization or group of individuals claiming to be the victim of a violation by one of the High Contracting Parties [State Parties] of the rights set forth in the Convention or the Protocols thereto. The High • Contracting Parties undertake not to hinder in any way the effective exercise of this right.” A State’s noncompliance with an interim measure constitutes a violation of article 34 (right of individual application to the ECtHR) of the ECHR irrespective of the subsequent finding of a violation of other material provisions of the ECHR by the Court.40 In addition to the interim measures, during the period from mid-March to the end of October 2022 GCR filed applications before the Court for violation of the ECHR articles for 8 cases, pursuant to Article 34 of ECHR. The examination is currently pending. In addition to the procedures before the Court, since early 2022, GCR alone has sent approximately 150 interventions to the Greek authorities. GCR requested search, rescue and access to registration and asylum procedures for more than 900 refugees coming from Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan, including children and people with severe vulnerabilities. Only in about half of these cases did the Greek authorities respond positively. Regarding the other half either they did not reply or they responded by stating that they failed to locate the refugees. In some of the cases, the refugees or their relatives later contacted GCR and stated that they had been regarding pushbacks,http://bit.ly/3fmraBB 39 ECHR, Factsheet-Interim measures, available at: https://bit.ly/3uiENWP See ECtHR, Case Mamatkulov and Aksarov v. Turkey, Applications 46827/99 and 46951/99, Judgment 4 February 2005, available at: https://bit.ly/3XLqXtz 40 12 AT EUROPE’S BORDERS: BETWEEN IMPUNITY AND CRIMINALIZATION