Many asylum seekers are directly returned to Greece from the Italian border outside the scope of the 34 Dublin II Regulation. A recent report by the Greek Council for Refugees and Pro Asyl indicated that “in the majority of cases at the Italian sea ports, people in need of international protection and unaccompanied children who are detected and apprehended in the Italian ports and in the southern coasts of Italy, are either refused entry to the Italian territory or are readmitted back to Greece, without being granted any access to international protection, to any sort of registration of their claim, 35 identification and individual evaluation of their case and/or vulnerability”. Similar concerns have been raised with regard to the Bulgarian/ Greek border. Dublin II returnees who have never previously lodged an asylum application in Greece will have their 36 application examined according to the normal asylum procedure upon return to Greece. Appeal Indicators: - - Does the law provide for an appeal against the decision in the Dublin procedure: Yes No o if yes, is the appeal judicial administrative o If yes, is it suspensive Yes No Average delay for the appeal body to make a decision: The appeals against the decisions in the Dublin procedure do not differ from all the other appeals in judicial level, including their suspensive effect. In case of an outgoing asylum application there is no appeal system. Personal Interview Indicators: - Is a personal interview of the asylum seeker systematically conducted in practice in the Dublin procedure? Yes No A personal interview is required. The whole procedure takes place as in the regular procedure. There are no mentioned cases, in practice, of asylum seekers who were not personally interviewed on the application of the Dublin procedure. However personal interviews in cases relating to outgoing requests for transfer of asylum seekers are less detailed and much more concise. In the rare cases where a Dublin Procedure is initiated by the Greek authorities, to the knowledge of the author of the report, there have been no specific complaints with regard to the way in which personal interviews on the application of the Dublin Regulation have been conducted. 34 35 36 On returns from Italy to Greece see Human Rights Watch, Turned away. Summary Returns of Unaccompanied Migrant Children and Adult Asylum Seekers from Italy to Greece, January 2013. Greek Council for Refugees and Pro Asyl, Human Cargo, Arbitrary Readmissions from the Italian Sea Ports to Greece, July 2012, p.4. See European Network for Technical Cooperation on the application of the Dublin II Regulation, Dublin II Regulation National Report Greece, 30 October 2012, at p. 15. 24