In 2022, the fast-track border procedure has continued being variably implemented depending on the profile and nationality of the asylum seekers concerned (see also Differential Treatment of Specific Nationalities in the Procedure). Within the framework of that procedure: ❖ The Asylum Service issued a total of 2,286 in-merit and inadmissibility decisions during 2022 in the framework of the fast-track border procedure. Out of the above, 462 were inadmissibility decisions, 74 were manifestly unfounded rejections, and 1,824 in merit decisions. Out of the 1,824 in-merit decisions, 1,580 were positive decisions, demonstrating a remarkably high recognition rate.405 ❖ In parallel, notes by the Readmission Unit of the Hellenic Police Headquarters confirmed that Türkiye has indefinitely suspended returns from Greece since 16 March 2020. Due to this suspension, the Greek authorities stopped sending readmission requests to Türkiye based on the Common EU- Türkiye Statement for rejected asylum seekers.406 Despite this suspension, the Greek authorities refused to examine applications for international protection on their merits, as required by Article 91(5) of Asylum Code. As a consequence, applicants whose applications have been/are rejected as inadmissible based on the “safe third country” concept end up in a state of legal uncertainty in Greece, exposed to a direct risk of destitution and detention, without access to an in-merit examination of their application and without the means to lodge a subsequent asylum application. As already explained in the section on Admissibility, this has been criticised by the European Commission. Generally, in 2021, a large number of asylum seekers with specific profiles (i.e. asylum seekers from Palestine, Eritrea and Yemen) had been granted refugee status on the basis of their administrative file, without undergoing an asylum interview, although this was not a consistent practice of the Asylum Service throughout the year or even between different Regional Asylum Offices applying the border procedure. This practice changed during 2022 and asylum seekers with specific profiles, where before their asylum application would have been examined on the basis of their administrative file, had to undergo asylum interviews. In Lesvos, at least since April 2022, Eritrean nationals had to undergo asylum interviews, while before their asylum application had been examined on the basis of their administrative file.407 In Lesvos, Chios and Kos, all asylum seekers from Palestine had to undergo an asylum interview, while in Kos all Palestinians coming from Syria are being examined on admissibility and the safe third country basis.408 Applications by asylum seekers from countries listed in the national list of countries of origin characterised as safe, according to Article 92 paragraph 5 of Asylum Code, have been examined on their merits only to the extent of their claims against the application of the safe country of origin assumption. It has been highlighted that “the practice of applying different asylum procedures according to the nationalities of the applicants is arbitrary, as it is neither provided by EU nor by domestic law. In addition, it violates the principle of non-discrimination as set out in Article 3 of the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951 relating to the status of refugees. Instead, it is explicitly based on EUAA’s undisclosed internal guidelines, which frame the hotspot asylum procedures in order to implement the EU-Türkiye statement.”409 Exempted categories from the fast-track border procedure under the Asylum Code As opposed to previous legislation, the Asylum Code repeals the exception of persons belonging to vulnerable groups and applicants falling under the Dublin Regulation from the fast-track border procedure 405 406 407 408 409 Reply of the Ministry to the Greek Parliament. Fenix, Fenix calls the Greek authorities to examine the merits of asylum applications rejected on admissibility, 1 February 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3wUxsyN. Information acquired during the Lesvos LAsWG meeting, 3 May 2022. Information acquired during the GCR’s mission to Chios and visit to Chios RAO, 24-26 May 2022, from the GCR lawyer operating in Kos and legal actors operating on the field in Lesvos Greens/EFA, The EU-Türkiye Statement and the Greek Hotspots: A failed European Pilot Project in Refugee Policy, June 2018, available at: https://bit.ly/2sJM2H4, 17. 94