certificate or family status can be submitted, however, these two documents require an apostille stamp,648 which in practice is not always possible for an asylum seeker to obtain. In practice, however, employees in the RAOs sometimes corrects the age of the person on the basis of documents without apostille. Alternatively, according to the law, the caseworker of the Asylum Service can refer the applicant to the age assessment determination procedure in case that reasonable doubt exists as to his or her age.649 In this case, referral to the age assessment procedure largely lies at the discretion of the Asylum Service caseworker.650 As mentioned above, the number of age assessments conducted within the framework of the asylum procedure in 2023 was not provided by MoMA despite GCR’s request. 1.3 Special procedural guarantees Indicators: Special Procedural Guarantees 1. Are there special procedural arrangements/guarantees for vulnerable people? Yes For certain categories No v If for certain categories, specify which: According to Article 1-λγ of the Asylum Code the following groups are considered as vulnerable groups: “children; unaccompanied children; direct relatives of victims of shipwrecks (parents, siblings, children, spouses); disabled persons; elderly; pregnant women; single parents with minor children; victims of human trafficking; persons with serious illness; persons with cognitive or mental disability and victims of torture, rape or other serious forms of psychological, physical or sexual violence such as victims of female genital mutilation.” 1.4 Adequate support during the interview According to Article 72 (2) Asylum Code, where applicants have been identified as applicants in need of special procedural guarantees, they shall be provided with adequate support in order to be in the position to benefit from the rights and comply with the obligations in the framework of the asylum procedure. The Asylum Code provides examples of forms of adequate support that can be granted in the procedure. More specifically:651 v The possibility of additional breaks during the personal interview; v The possibility for the applicant to move during the interview if his or her health condition so requires; and v Leniency to minor inconsistencies and contradictions, to the extent that they relate to the applicant’s health condition. National legislation expressively provides that each caseworker conducting an asylum interview shall be ‘trained in particular as of the special needs of women, children, and victims of violence and torture.’652 The law also provides that, when a woman is being interviewed, the interviewer, as well as the interpreter, should also be female where this has been expressly requested by the applicant.653 In practice, GCR is aware of cases where the vulnerability or particular circumstances of the applicant have not been taken into account or have not properly been assessed at first or/and second instance. 648 649 650 651 652 653 Decision of the Director of the Asylum Service No 3153, Gov. Gazette Β’ 310/02.02.2018. Article 80(3) Asylum Code. For a detailed description of the problems related with the age assessment on Lesvos Island, see Fenix, A Child’s Best Interests? Rights Violations in the Absence of Presumption of Minority, 13 October 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3ACqq2t. Article 67(2) IPA. Article 82(12)(a) Asylum Code. Article 82(5) Asylum Code, as well as Administrative Court of Appeal of Athens, Decision 3043/2018, in Farmakidis-Markou Konstantinos, Refugee Law, Nomiki Bibliothiki, 2021, in greek, in which the court found that an applicant who has not requested an interpreter of the same gender for the interview cannot rely on this provision at a later stage. 141