for them […]”. Meanwhile, access to the platform was yet again suspended between May 2023 and the
beginning of July 2023.680
As further noted in the aforementioned 2023 report by RLS & MIT:
‘Under the new procedure […] at one of two RICs on the Greek mainland, […] applicants are
unable to exit the facility for a maximum of 25 days while they undergo screening consisting of a
police interview, medical check, vulnerability assessment, and the registration of an asylum claim
[…]. Restriction of movement is applied as a blanket measure […] including (to) vulnerable
persons […] meaning that people with a disability, pregnant women, victims of human trafficking,
people with serious illnesses and torture survivors, among others, are subjected to de facto
detention within the RICs for periods up to 25 days (and in practice possibly longer). […]
assessment of vulnerability within the screening procedure is inadequate […].’681
According to the law, when indications or claims of past persecution or serious harm arise (i.e., torture
survivors), the Asylum Service has to refer the applicant to a medical and/or psychosocial examination,
which should be conducted free of charge and by qualified, specialised personnel. Alternatively, the
applicant must be informed that they can undergo such examinations at their own initiative and
expense.682 Article 77(2) of the Asylum Code provides that ‘[a]ny results and reports of such examinations
are deemed as justified by the Asylum Service where it is established that the applicant’s allegations of
persecution or serious harm are likely to be well-founded’.
However, there are still no public health structures specialised in identifying or assisting torture survivors
in their rehabilitation process. As a result, it is for the NGOs running relatively specialised programmes,
to handle the identification and rehabilitation of victims of torture. This is rather problematic for reasons
that concern the sustainability of the system, as NGOs’ funding is often interrupted. In Athens, torture
survivors were referred for identification purposes to the NGO METAdrasi in the context of its programme
“Hope and Memory: Identification and Certification of Victims of Torture”683. However, the programme
ended at the end of 2023.
According to a report of FENIX of April 2023 regarding identification and certification of victims of torture:
‘practice over the years has demonstrated serious deficiencies in the identification and
certification of victims of torture of applicants in Greece […]. Additionally, structural deficiencies
are also observed in the specific process to certify VoTs, namely due to restrictive legislation
limiting only public authorities to provide certification for VoTs in accordance with the Istanbul
Protocol, whilst national authorities and bodies do not have the qualification or training and lack
of interpretation to proceed with this certification. At the same time, non-governmental
organisations, namely Metadrasi, hold the appropriate expertise to provide certification for VoTs
according to the Istanbul Protocol […] Nonetheless, […] the VoT certification provided by NGOs
may be taken into consideration by asylum authorities for the purposes of the asylum procedure,
but it is at the discretion of each decision maker […].’684
Also, according to Article 62(5) of the Asylum Code “[i]n case the competent Authorities identify victims
of human trafficking, they are obliged to inform the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) for the
680
681
682
683
684
GCR, Submission to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe concerning the groups of cases of
M.S.S. v. Greece (Application No. 30696/09) and Rahimi v. Greece (8687/08), July 2023, p. 3, available at:
https://bit.ly/4b3Q3JR.
Refugee Legal Support / Mobile Info Team, Protection Unavailable: Dysfunctional Practices and Restrictions
on the Right to Asylum Assessing the implementation of reception and identification procedures on mainland
Greece, November 2023, p. 32 et al., available at: https://tinyurl.com/yrsjp5xa.
Article 77(3) Asylum Code.
METAdrasi, Hope and Memory: Identification and certification of victims of torture, available at:
https://bit.ly/3JQEFFP.
FENIX – Humanitarian Legal Aid, Unrecognised Vulnerability- Greece’s systematic failure to identify and
certify Victims of Torture, pp. 6-7, available at: https://tinyurl.com/mwpxajcv.
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