In 2022, the EUAA deployed 674 experts in Greece, 13 most of whom were temporary agency workers (648). The majority of these experts were caseworkers (103), followed by registration, administrative and information provision assistants (91), site management reception assistants (78), reception assistants (50), case management reception assistants (42), Information Management (IM) assistants (32), vulnerability reception assistants (28) and a series of other programme and support staff (e.g. operations assistant, field support staff, training support staff, legal officers, Dublin staff, etc). 14 As of 20 December 2022, there were still a total of 558 EUAA experts present in Greece, of whom 77 were caseworkers, 52 site management reception assistants, 47 registration, administrative and information provision assistants, 41 case management reception assistants, 29 Information Management (IM) assistants.15 5. Short overview of the asylum procedure The asylum procedure in Greece underwent substantial reforms throughout 2016, many of which driven by the adoption of the EU-Türkiye statement of 18 March 2016. The adoption of Law (L) 4375/2016 in April 2016 and its subsequent amendments in June 2016 overhauled the procedure. Provisions related inter alia to the implementation of the EU-Türkiye statement were re-amended in March 2017, August 2017 and May 2018. Following the July 2019 elections, the new government announced a more restrictive policy on migration and asylum.16 As a result, national asylum legislation was radically re-amended. L. 4636/2019 (hereinafter International Protection Act/IPA), was adopted on 1 November 2019 and entered into force on 1 January 2020, replacing the previous legislation on asylum and reception. The IPA has been repeatedly and heavily criticised by national and international human rights bodies including the Greek Ombudsman,17 the Greek National Commission for Human Rights (GNCHR), 18 UNHCR19 and several civil society organisations. 20 It has been categorised, inter alia, as an attempt to lower protection standards and create unwarranted procedural and substantive hurdles for people seeking international protection. As noted by UNHCR, the new Law reduces safeguards for people seeking international protection and creates additional pressure on the overstretched capacity of administrative and judicial authorities. “As a result, asylum seekers may be easily excluded from the process without having their international protection needs adequately assessed. This may expose them to the risk of refoulement”.21 On 10 April 2020, four months after the entry into force of the new law, the Ministry of Migration and Asylum submitted a bill entitled “Improvement of migration legislation”, aiming at speeding up asylum 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 EUAA personnel numbers do not include deployed interpreters by the EUAA in support of asylum and reception activities. Information provided by the EUAA, 28 February 2023. In the figures above, the same persons may have been included under different profiles, if a change in profile took place in the course of 2022. Information provided by the EUAA, 28 February 2023. Amnesty International, Annual Report 2019, Greece, available at: https://bit.ly/2LDT5L6. Greek Ombudsman, Παρατηρήσεις στο σχέδιο νόμου του Υπουργείου Προστασίας του Πολίτη περί διεθνούς προστασίας, 23 October 2019, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/2LAxCCH. GNCHR, Παρατηρήσεις της ΕΕΔΑ στο Σχέδιο Νόμου του Υπουργείου Προστασίας του Πολίτη «Περί Διεθνούς Προστασίας’, 24 October 2019, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3cIUBYa. UNHCR, ‘UNHCR urges Greece to strengthen safeguards in draft asylum law’, 24 October 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/3fXkm9j. See inter alia GCR, Observation on the draft law on international protection, 23 October 2019; Amnesty International, Το προτεινόμενο σχέδιο νόμου για το άσυλο υποβαθμίζει την προστασίας και τα δικαιώματα των προσφύγων και παραβιάζει τα διεθνή πρότυπα, 24 October 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/3dWduqV, RSA, RSA Comments on the International Protection Bill, 21 October 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/2LCfJU7; Actionaid Greece et al, 15 civil society organisations call upon the Government to organise a substantial public consultation prior of voting the draft law on asylum, 31 October 2019, https://bit.ly/2Zf4tFe; Amnesty International et al., Joint press conference regarding the draft law on asylum, 30 October 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/3bDUgVr. UNHCR, ‘UNHCR’s Intervention at the hearing for actors to the Standing Committee of Public Administration, Public Order and Justice of the Hellenic Parliament regarding the Draft Law on the Improvement of Migration Legislation’, 9 May 2020, available at: https://bit.ly/3dJEB8H. 27