To the extent Opinion 8815/14.05.2021 of the Director of the Asylum Service contains information referred to in Article 10(3)(b) of Directive 2013/32/EU, and the deciding authority takes the opinion into account for the purpose of taking a decision on an application for international protection, it should be made accessible to the applicant and his/her legal advisers’. Contrary to Article 91(3) of the Asylum Code, the Opinion was simply a compilation of sources of information about Türkiye and contains no legal reasoning as to why this information leads to the conclusion that Türkiye is a safe third country for asylum seekers from the five countries concerned. In fact, the sources mentioned in the “Opinion” seem to rather substantiate the opposite conclusion. Finally, it should be mentioned that the “Opinion” has still not been published by the authorities nor is it included as part of the applicants’ file in the inadmissibility decisions.553 As a result, from the entry into force of the JMDs, the applications lodged by those nationalities can be rejected as "inadmissible" without their applications being examined on their merits. Prior to any analysis of the statistics, it must be noted that ‘Full and transparent publication of asylum statistics has been a core demand of MPs and civil society in Greece from the re-establishment of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum to present […] monthly reports of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum do not disaggregate first and second instance decisions by country of origin. However, detailed figures by country and type of decisions have been secured through parliamentary questions’.554 In 2022, 6,105 inadmissibility decisions were issued in application of JMD 42799/2021, out of which 3,409 first instance inadmissibility decisions and 2,696 second instance inadmissibility decisions. 555 The criteria provided by the Asylum Code are to be assessed in each individual case, except where a third country has been declared as generally safe in the national list.556 Such provision seems to derogate from the duty to carry out an individualised assessment of the safety criteria where the applicant comes from a country included in the list of “safe third countries”, contrary to the Directive and to international law. Even where a country has been designated as generally safe, the authorities should conduct an individualised examination of the fulfilment of the safety criteria. Moreover, there should be a possibility to challenge both the general designation of a country as safe and the application of the concept in an individual case.557 Up until the end of 2020, the safe third country concept was only applied in the context of the Fast-Track Border Procedure under Article 84 IPA, previously in force, on the islands for those that arrived after 20 March 2016 and subject to the EU-Türkiye Statement, and in particular vis-à-vis Syrians, who fall under the EU Türkiye Statement, namely those who have entered Greece via the Greek Aegean islands and a geographical restriction is imposed to them. Since June 2021, all applications for international protection submitted by nationals of Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan and Bangladesh throughout the Greek territory are examined under the safe third country concept pursuant to JMD 42799/2021, as amended by JMD 485868/2021 and 734214/2022. Based on this new policy, asylum applications of people from the aforementioned five nationalities are not examined on the basis of their individual circumstances and the risks they face in their country of origin. Instead, they are presumed to be safe in Türkiye, and only if Türkiye is proven not to be safe, these applications are deemed ‘admissible’, and the competent decision authorities proceed to the examination of the applications for international protection on the merits. Three out of the five nationalities mentioned in the JMD 42799/03.06.2021 are those who are most often recognised as refugees in Greece. In 2020, before the said JMD, 92% of Syrians, 66% of Afghans, and 94% of Somalis (median acceptance rate: 553 554 555 556 557 Equal Rights Beyond Borders, Hias Greece and RSA, The state of the Border Procedure on the Greek islands, September 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3VbNjU5, 19-20. RSA, The Greek asylum procedure in figures in 2022, Analysis of main trends in refugee protection, available at: https://bit.ly/4482hhP, 2. MoMA, Reply of the Ministry to the Greek Parliament, 156079/2023, 16 March 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3JIy0y6, 12. Article 91(2) of the Asylum Code. RSA Comments on the International Protection Bill, October 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/3eqsDC0, 4-5. 128