In January 2023, lawyers working for a registered legal aid NGO operating in Samos CCAC, reported that the CCAC administration had informed them that they would no longer have access to the CCAC unless they had been issued a smart card. As of 16 February 2021, and according to the final lists of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum concerning the Registry of the lawyers providing legal assistance to asylum seekers at the second instance, 24 lawyers were appointed on the islands. These lawyers have been appointed to provide free legal aid under the state funded legal aid scheme at second instance as follows: 12 lawyers on Lesvos, 2 lawyers on Samos, 4 lawyers on Chios, 2 lawyers on Kos, 2 lawyers on Rhodes, and 2 lawyers on Leros.440 In reality, however, there were never that many lawyers operational, due to administrative obstacles and issues. Since June 2020, by decision of the administration of Central Asylum Service, there has been a “Provision of legal assistance through video conference to the Regional Asylum Services of Leros, Samos, Chios and Lesvos due to increased needs in the provision of legal aid services in the second degree to applicants for international protection”. However, in practice in a significant number of cases taken over by lawyers on the mainland, the latter had no communication with the rejected applicants before drafting the appeals. This is something that continued throughout 2021 and 2022. As a result, appeals have only taken into consideration the material already included in the file and the appellants had no way to communicate to their appointed lawyer any new elements related to their case and/or new significant documents. Moreover, some asylum applicants reported communication issues with their state-registered lawyers and the short duration of their preparation meetings. More specifically, in Lesvos, legal aid organisations observed recurring problems regarding the representation of asylum applicants by the Registry lawyers. In particular, there have been complaints about a) the preparatory meetings between the asylum seekers and the lawyers not taking place, b) issues with the interpretation, which was available to the Registry lawyers for a maximum of 2 hours, and c) gaps in legislation concerning the second instance procedure further to the submission and the examination of the appeal; namely, there were no provisions as regards to the provision of legal aid services in the additional hearings before the Appeals Committee, for additional consultations with the clients when needed, for efficient means of communication between the asylum applicants and the Registry lawyers representing them.441 In 2022, free legal assistance by the Registry of Lawyers was requested in 1,122 cases in the Eastern Aegean islands’ RAOs.442 As also mentioned in the Regular Procedure: Legal assistance no tailored state funded free legal aid scheme exists for submitting judicial remedies before Courts against a second instance negative decision. 6. Accelerated procedure 6.1. General (scope, grounds for accelerated procedures, time limits) The Asylum Code provides that the basic principles and guarantees applicable to the regular procedure are applied to the accelerated procedure and that “the accelerated procedure shall have as a sole effect to reduce the time limits”.443 The wording of the law continues to be misleading, however, given that the accelerated procedure entails exceptions from automatic suspensive effect and thereby applicants’ right to remain on the territory. According to Art. 88(4) Asylum Code the examination of an application under the accelerated procedure must be concluded within 20 days, subject to the possibility of a 10-day exception. 440 441 442 443 MoMA, Decision No 1836/21, 16 February 2021. Information acquired during the Lesvos LAsWG meeting, 28 June 2022. Reply of the Ministry to the Greek Parliament. Art. 88 (2) Asylum Code. 104