The practice of reissuing the pink card differs depending on the location. When an asylum claim is rejected by the Aliens’ Directorate office in Athens, usually an appeal is prepared on the spot (containing only basic information on the applicant and the case) and the pink card is automatically renewed. However, in most of the other locations registering and processing asylum claims, there is no such automatic appeal, but the applicant must submit one within the time limits specified by law (30, 15 or 10 days, see section appeal below). In these cases, the following obstacles have been observed: a. The applicants are not informed of their rights with regards to an appeal in a language they understand resulting in them missing the deadlines for the appeal. b. Due to lack of interpreters and severe understaffing, the applicants may lack access to the appeal process, as they may present themselves to the authorities for filing an appeal but there may not be anyone available to receive the claims. Ten Appeals Committees, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Citizen Protection, were established under Article 26 Presidential decree 114/10 and had started working. They are in charge of new appeals as well as the previous backlog of cases. Nevertheless, their services have been suspended in the beginning of May 2013 due to issues with the professional licenses of the members and recent allegations with regards to abusive employment contracts. At the time of writing, the Committees have not resumed their operations, and the following description therefore remains theoretical for the time being. Each Committee shall consist of: a. b. c. a civil servant from the Ministry of Interior, Decentralization and e-Governance or from the Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights with a university degree having graduated from a Law School. This person is the chair of the Appeals Committee, a representative of the UNHCR, and a jurist specialised in refugee law and human rights law. The Ministry staff, who are members of the Committees and their substitutes shall be appointed by the competent Minister (Ministry of Interior or Ministry of Justice). The above mentioned third member of the Appeal Committees shall be chosen from a relevant experts list established under the responsibility of 24 the National Commission for Human Rights according to its regulation . Lawyers appointed as members of the Appeal Committee shall abstain from any legal action on behalf of third country nationals on immigration or international protection matters and shall not represent such clients before the authorities during the procedure at both first instance and appeal. In case the second and third members of the Appeal Boards, or their substitutes do not attend the meetings of the Appeal Committee for any reason, save cases of force majeure, for three consecutive meetings, despite having been duly invited, they shall be replaced by civil servants holding a University degree from the Ministry of Interior, Decentralization and e-Governance or from the Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights. 25 The chair and the members of the Appeal Committees are full-time employees. Each Appeal Board is provided with support by a secretariat consisting of 5 staff members composed of duly qualified staff from the Ministry for the Protection of the Citizen in a full-time capacity. By law, the Appeal Boards should rule on appeals against decisions in Article 25 par. 1 (a) P.D. 114/10 within six months (when the regular procedure is followed) and for all other appeals within three months, from the date the appeal was lodged. They shall operate on the basis of the rules of procedure laid down in a decision to be taken by the Minister of the Citizen Protection. 24 25 Ministerial Decision Y139/2000, Regulation of the National Committee on Human Rights (in Greek). The members of the Appeal Committee shall receive an indemnity according to the provisions of Article 17 paragraph 2 (c) of law 3205/2003 (O. G. A 297). The indemnity for the representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees shall be disbursed to this agency. 18