be noted that although the interview was conducted by EUAA staff, the decision was issued by an asylum service employee who had no contact with the applicant.321 The case of a single-parent family of Arabic decent from Iraq. The case worker rejected the mother’s claims of fearing for her own safety as well as the safety of her two minor children from her former husband’s family due to her separation from him and her conversion to Christianity, as inadmissible citing inter alia sources completely irrelevant to their situation, specifically pertaining to the prevalence of honor crimes among Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan.322 1.3.2. Interpretation The law envisages that interpretation is provided to applicants both during the registration of their asylum request as well as during their interview at first and second instance.323 In accordance with an amendment to the IPA adopted in May 2020 as well as the codification of the relevant legislation in the Asylum Code, in case interpretation in the language of the choice of the applicant is unavailable, interpretation is provided in the official language of the country of origin or in a language that the applicant may reasonably be expected to understand.324 Interpretation for registrations of asylum requests, as well as interviews before the authorities is provided both by interpreters of the NGO METAdrasi and EUAA interpreters, yet challenges were reported in 2023. Namely, on 30 October 2023,325 METAdrasi issued an announcement stating it had been forced to reduce by 80% its staff of 300 qualified interpreters in 63 languages inter alia supporting the work of the Greek Asylum Service (GAS), on account of a six-month delay in receiving due payments for services provided to the GAS. In the same announcement, METAdrasi also expressed its befuddlement over the delay, given the required funds had already been provided to the Greek state by the European Commission. Two days later, on 1 November, the organisation issued a further announcement, stating that it had started “a race” for the re-employment of interpreters whose contracts had ended in October, following reassurances received by the Minister of Migration and Asylum that the funding gap would be speedily resolved.326 Yet despite these reassurances, the issue remained unresolved, at least up to 15 January 2024, when the organisation stressed it had yet to receive a single euro for services provided to the MoMA over an 8-month period, and was thus yet again faced with the need to “drastically reduce” its staff of interpreters, even though the amounts due were earmarked and had already been provided by the EC to the Greek Ministry of Finance for this purpose.327 Lastly, on 14 May 2024, the organisation announced that following the cessation of the provision of interpretation services in the asylum procedures on 6 May, it would also move forward with the cessation of interpretation services throughout Greece’s camps, on account of the expiration and delays in the timely renewal of the contracts it had signed with the MoMA, while once more noting that it had yet to receive due payments for the services provided by its interpreters in the previous months.328 Following these developments, on 17 May 2024, the MoMA issued its own announcement, noting interpretation gaps had been addressed with the support of EUAA personnel and referring to delays, from the side of METAdrasi NGO, in presenting the necessary documents provided by law in order to sign a new contract, as the designated provider of interpretation services.329 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 Decision on file with the author. Ibid. Article 82(3) Asylum Code. Article 74(3) Asylum Code. METAdrasi, Metadrasi Obliged to Severe Cuts in Interpretation Services due to Prolonged Payment Delays by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, 30 October 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/ynpktajb. METAdrasi, Resumption of Interpretation at Reception Centres and the Asylum Service, 1 November 2023, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/4kxm4av2. METAdrasi, Interpreters in Refugee Camps and Asylum Procedures Unpaid for Eight Months, 15 January 2024, available at: https://bit.ly/4bfFbrP. METAdrasi, End of the provision of interpretation services in the asylum procedures and the Reception and Identification Centres throughout Greece, 14 May 2024, no longer available online. Also see Kathimerini, Refugees without the possibility to communicate, 17 May 2024, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/47c9vejn. MoMA, Anouncement, 17 May 2024, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/cr36z6br. 74