56 9. Asylum and the asylum procedure in detention ■ In Greece, recognition rates for all nationalities remained far below EU averages until the beginning of 2011. According to official statements, the recognition rate, including all statuses (asylum, subsidiary and humanitarian), rose to 12,35 % (in the first half of 2011). On the surface this percentage might suggest that there has been an impressive increase in the recognition rate. A deeper analysis, however, reveals that this rate relates more to the backlog in open asylum cases. In these pending cases (backlog) there are people with a certain profile coming from countries such as Iraq (Iraqi Christians), Iranians, Afghans etc. who are in need of international protection, and who have been waiting several years for their interviews. In the area of Evros, the systematic prolonged detention upon arrest, especially under the conditions mentioned above, functions as a deterrent measure against lodging asylum applications and as a barrier to gaining access to a fair asylum procedure. During our missions and until October 2011, the competent authorities in charge of examining applications for international protection in Orestiada, Evros (P.D. of Orestiada the SSub/Directorate of Orestiada), have granted only one subsidiary status to a detainee. No asylum or humanitarian statuses were granted to detainees. 9.1. Access to asylum and risk of refoulement The police, with very a few exceptions, issue a deportation order to nearly all apprehended persons. No claim for international protection is registered upon arrest. The persons in need of international protection are detained pending deportation. This practice constitutes a direct denial of international protection and exposes them to a serious danger of refoulement. In detention, the access to asylum is restricted. The majority of the detainees wishing to seek international protection cannot have access to the asylum procedure. Their asylum 179 See also: Chapter 9.4. 180 See also: Chapter 4.2.2. claims are either not registered at all by the authorities or only after days or months of delay. While the support from a lawyer or NGO seems to be necessary even for the delayed registration of the asylum application, access is not guaranteed even in these cases. We have heard reports about cases where the police have deliberately misled asylum seekers.179 The latter signed either solemn declarations that they do not want to apply for asylum or a confirmation that they would withdraw from the asylum application. There are other cases where detainees were falsely led to believe that their applications had been registered by the police, but instead of being protected they were deported. There are also cases where the lawyers had informed the police of detainees who wished to apply for asylum, but the police either registered them months later, thus putting them in danger of expulsion, or never registered them at all and deported them.180 We observed a discrepancy between the numbers of persons who requested asylum (for whom GCR-lawyers had send faxes for their access to the asylum procedure), and the numbers of officially registered asylum claims during the same period. Thus, it seems as though even the detainees who informed GCR-lawyers about their wish to claim asylum had not secured access to the asylum procedure.181 It is clear that the appalling detention conditions, the prolonged detention duration for asylum seekers, the lack of legal safeguards and the lack of reception conditions prevent the majority of detainees from applying for international protection in detention. It was shocking to meet persons with a well-founded fear of persecution who were so desperate that they would prefer being deported than staying even one more day under the abysmal detention conditions. Owing to the lack of proper legal information and interpreters, many have been ill-advised by police officers or private lawyers, and did not apply for asylum, hoping to be released soon. 181 During the first half of 2011, 16.000 were persons were arrested in Evros for illegal entry while only 224 asylum claims have been registered in the area (158 in Alexandroupolis headquarters and 66 in Orestiada) in the same period.