As of the writing of this report, Greece has no experience applying the new law’s subsidiary protection standard in its asylum adjudications.251 When it does so, interviewers and adjudicators should be guided by the latest UNHCR return advisory of December 2007 which recommends that all states should consider asylum seekers from central and southern Iraq as refugees based on the 1951 Refugee Convention, but also that those not recognized under the Refugee Convention criteria should be afforded subsidiary protection.252 The First-instance Interview The Petrou Ralli police station, where 94 percent of asylum interviews in Greece were conducted in 2007,253 has one cluttered, noisy, busy room without adequate space for privacy or time to elicit all relevant information where 10 police interviewers conduct 60 to 75 interviews per day.254 At one end of the same open room where all the interviews take place stands an inky table where the applicants are fingerprinted. The legal standard in Greek refugee law holds that “a personal interview shall take place under conditions which guarantee appropriate confidentiality... [and] which allow applicants to present the grounds of their applications in a comprehensive manner.”255 In a room awash in paper, movement, and commotion, a private, confidential, comprehensive interview seems nearly impossible. UNHCR analyzed 305 asylum first-instance decisions as part of a study on the Implementation of the European Council’s Qualification Directive and found not only that all claimants were rejected, but also that “none of these decisions contained any reference to the facts and none contained any detailed legal reasoning.”256 The rejected cases included Somalis, Afghans, Sudanese, Sri Lankans, and Iraqis. The rejected Iraqi 251 This is true despite the law’s official retroactive applicability to October 10, 2006 (Article 38). 252 UNHCR, December 2007 Addendum to UNHCR’s August 2007 Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum-seekers, p. 7, http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?docid=4766a69d2&page=search (accessed August 28, 2008). 253 Unaccompanied Minors Asylum Seekers in Greece, a study on the treatment of unaccompanied minors applying for asylum in Greece commissioned by UNHCR’s Office in Greece, April 2008, p. 38. 254 Human Rights Watch interview with Mr. Christos Gavras, head of Asylum Unit, Alien’s Division, Petrou Ralli, June 4, 2008. 255 Presidential Decree90/2008, Articles 7 and 8. Official Gazette, A’ 138/11-07-2008. Presidential decree61/1999, Article 2.3, said, “For the purposes of the interview, a room specially arranged to ensure confidentiality is being disposed.” 256 UNHCR, “Implementation of the Qualification Directive,” p. 31. Stuck in a Revolving Door 96