More specifically:477 ❖ The possibility of additional breaks during the personal interview; ❖ The possibility for the applicant to move during the interview if his or her health condition so requires; and ❖ Leniency to minor inconsistencies and contradictions, to the extent that they relate to the applicant’s health condition. National legislation expressively provides that each caseworker conducting an asylum interview shall be ‘trained in particular as of the special needs of women, children, and victims of violence and torture.’478 The law also provides that, when a woman is being interviewed, the interviewer, as well as the interpreter, should also be female where this has been expressly requested by the applicant. 479 In practice, GCR is aware of cases where the vulnerability or particular circumstances of the applicant have not been taken into account or have not properly been assessed at first or/and second instance. Inadequate interview conditions continued to be reported in the premises of RAO’s and AAU’s in 2022 according to GCR, i.e. registrations and interviews were conducted without consideration of potential vulnerabilities and relevant needs. Certain interviews and registrations took place simultaneously in different spaces within the same container, which does not grant proper sound insulation and is not in line with the principle of confidentiality. The Appeals Committees further contribute to the non-implementation of special procedural guarantees through a strict interpretation of Article 72 Asylum Code. Several Committees have ruled that the onus is on the asylum seeker to establish exactly what evidence he or she would have been able to submit in his/her specific case if procedural guarantees had been provided during the procedure.480 All decisions rejecting minors' claims have troubling similarities. Procedural deficits (absence of a guardian, of appropriate legal representation and legal aid during the process), as well as substantial deficits regarding the determination of refugee status (lack of any reference to the Best Interest of the Child or lack of assessment of the Best Interest, obvious lack of knowledge regarding forms of child persecution in general and in countries of origin in particular or the lack of a proper assessment of a minor's credibility), make it almost impossible for unaccompanied minors undergoing the procedure themselves to qualify for international protection. The number of decisions granting refugee status or subsidiary protection to unaccompanied children and the number of in-merit rejection decisions issued throughout 2022 is not available. 2.2 Exemption from special procedures The Asylum Code does not provide for the exemption of vulnerable persons from special procedures as a rule481 (see Identification). Applicants in need of special procedural guarantees are only exempted from the Accelerated Procedure, the Border Procedure, and the Fast-Track Border Procedure where adequate support cannot be provided (see above). 482 477 478 479 480 481 482 Article 67(2) IPA. Article 83(12)(a) Asylum Code. Article 83(5) Asylum Code, as well as Administrative Court of Appeal of Athens, Decision 3043/2018, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/2Jk1Bk6, which found that an applicant who has not requested an interpreter of the same gender for the interview cannot rely on this provision at a later stage. 6th Appeals Committee, Decision 30955/2020, 18 May 2021, para II.4; 12 th Appeals Committee, Decision 233902/2021, 9 September 2021, 3. Article 41 (d) Asylum Code provides state that the determination of an applicant as vulnerable has the sole effect of triggering immediate care of particular reception, and Article 77 (3) Asylum Code adds ‘the provision of special procedural guarantees’ Article 72(3) Asylum Code. This provision clarifies that, where the applicant falls within the cases where no appeals have no automatic suspensive effect, he or she must have access to interpretation services, legal assistance and at least one week to prepare the appeal (see also Border Procedure and Fast-Track Border Procedure). 116