event not tailored to asylum seekers and cannot be accessed by them in practice due to several obstacles. For example, the request for legal aid is submitted by an application written in Greek; free legal aid is granted only if the legal remedy for which the legal assistance is requested is not considered “manifestly inadmissible” or “manifestly unfounded”. 315 As noted by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention “[i]nadequate legal aid is provided for challenging a second instance negative decision on an asylum application, and the capacity of NGOs to file this application is very limited given the number of persons in need of international protection”.316 ❖ The application for annulment and application for suspension/interim order do not have automatic suspensive effect.317 Therefore between the application of suspension/interim order and the decision of the court, there is no guarantee that the applicant will not be removed from the territory. ❖ The Administrative Court can only examine the legality of the decision and not the merits of the case. ❖ The judicial procedure is lengthy. GCR is aware of cases pending for a period of about two years for the issuance of a decision of the Administrative Court of Appeals following an application for annulment. Moreover, according to Article 108(2) IPA and Article 114(2) of the Asylum Code, the Minister on Migration and Asylum, also has the right to lodge an application for annulment against the decisions of the Appeals Committee before the Administrative Court. In 2020, the Minister on Migration and Asylum lodged one Application for Annulment against a second instance decision of the Appeals Committees. The Appeals Committee ruled that an applicant for whom a decision to discontinue the examination of the asylum application due to implicit withdrawal has been issued, cannot be removed before the nine months period during which she can report again to the competent authority in order to request her case be reopened. In 27-6-2022, the Council of State issued decision Nr. 1398/2022, which accepted the Minister’s application for annulment.318 A total of 433 applications for annulment before the Administrative Court of Athens and Thessaloniki were lodged against second instance negative decisions in 2021. Relevant data for 2022 was not provided. As mentioned above, the Council of State confirmed the competence of First Instance Administrative Courts to judicially review decisions of the Appeals Committees, in cases when the second instance decisions on asylum applications are taken by Committees composed by higher-court judges.319 Consequently, the examination of the Applications for Annulment before the First Instance Administrative Courts of Athens and Thessaloniki, has resumed. In 2022, out of a total of 287 decisions issued on Applications for Annulments, 230 were rejected and 50 were granted, raising the approval rate to 20%. 320 315 316 317 318 319 320 Ibid. UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Addendum: Mission to Greece, 29 July 2020, A/HRC/45/16/Add.1, available at: https://bit.ly/3dL8I0U, para. 85. See e.g. ECtHR, M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece, Application No 30696/09, Judgment of 21 January 2011. Available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/45s5Q3e. Council of State, Decisions Nr. 1580-1/2021, October 2021; Council of State, ‘Γνωστοποίηση της υπ' αριθ. 19/12-10-2020 πράξης της Επιτροπής του άρθρου 1 παρ. 1 του ν. 3900/2010’, 19 October 2020, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3kUeHSV; RSA, The Council of State pilot procedure on judicial review in the asylum procedure, 1 February 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/2R8uOTx. RSA, The Greek asylum procedure in figures in 2022: Analysis of main trends in refugee protection, 28 March 2023, https://bit.ly/433SvfO. 69