Order, no return under Dublin II took place from and deportation procedure are well documented Italy to Greece during 2011. There have been ten and known in all European countries. initial requests throughout this year, none of them More specifically, those readmitted to Igoumenitsa, completed though from the Italian counterparts. were detained under degrading and inhuman On the other hand readmissions – both formal and conditions33 pending deportation and faced the informal – go on systematically under the above- risk of being removed back to their country of described conditions rejecting people at the frontier origin. During detention, they were transferred without allowing them to apply for international to different detention centres or borderguard protection or denying the registration of their and police stations, without having access to the claims. It seems that the Italian authorities use asylum procedure and to an effective remedy this practice for bypassing the Dublin II procedure against arbitrary removal. and in this way they avoid the clear obligations In two of the below described cases, minors were deriving from it. readmitted to Igoumenitsa and were detained for 20 days in a mixed detention facility at the port, until they were then transferred to a special 2.10. Violation of the principle of non- reception centre for unaccompanied minors in Konitsa. One of them described having suffered a refoulement lot because of the detention conditions. He told us out of desperation he allegedly even started a hunger strike to struggle for his freedom. The Italian authorities do not properly examine whether the readmission exposes the affected The majority of those readmitted back to Patras persons to a risk of direct or indirect refoulement seem to be released immediately or after some to a country where his life or freedom would be days and are given a “Return Decision”. They are threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, ordered to voluntarily leave from Greece within a membership of a particular social group or political short period of time and are exposed to further opinion (article 33 of geneva Convention, article 78 and repeated arrests, detention and removal in the TFEU, article 21 of the Qualification Directive, article future. 18 European Charter of Fundamental Rights), cannot where they would be subjected to the death During their stay in Greece the readmitted 34 have real access to the asylum procedure , have to penalty, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (article 3 ECHR, article face the extremely dysfunctional asylum procedure 19 of the European Charter of Fundamental rights) and cannot be protected 35against arbitrary removals or where they can face torture or ill-treatment to their country of origin . (indirect or direct refoulement). Additionally, the 33 Hellenic League for Human Rights (in French) 2010: Italian authorities in cases of unaccompanied http://184.107.130.30//files/Rapport%20conditions%20de%20survie. minors don’t take into consideration the best pdf See among others: interest of the child, nor do they comply with their 34 “Asylum campaign Report” (forthcoming in July 2012). http://omainternational and European obligations as regards dadikigorwn.blogspot.gr/ the protection of the children. (Convention on the Joint Submission of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles to the ComRights of the Child) Many of the readmitted persons, were entitled prima facie to international protection. Some of them have had visible signs of torture or belonged to other vulnerable groups. Upon readmission to Greece, people face the risk of onward refoulement to their country of origin, where their life, freedom and dignity are in danger. The systematic inefficiencies of the asylum 14 mittee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in the case of M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece (Application no. 30696/09). www.ecre.org/ index.php?option=com_downloads&id=566, “Walls of Shame” Accounts from the inside. The detention centres of Evros http://www. proasyl.de/fileadmin/fm-dam/q_PUBLIKATIONEN/2012/Evros-Bericht_12_04_10_BHP.pdf, AITIMA, Press Release, [Serious Disruptions in Asylum Procedures in Petrou Ralli], published 15/03/2012. http:// www.aitima.gr/aitima_files/Deltio_Typoy_Prosvasi_sti_diadikasia_asyloy.pdf , Greek Council for Refugees, Press Release, What is happening in Petrou Ralli?, published 19/03/2912. http://www.gcr. gr/node/651, Greek Ombudsman, Independent Authority, Press Release, 08/02/2012, Asylum Procedure: Problems worsen as the new asylum service is not functional yet. http://www.synigoros.gr/resources/20120131-dt-asylo---aytoyiaevroy-final--2.pdf 35 MSS v. Belgium and Greece, paragraph 299-322