Later, in January 2023, regarding charges against 24 human rights defenders who were helping to rescue migrants in distress at sea in Lesvos in Greece, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants stated that:97 ‘Trials like this are deeply concerning because they criminalise life-saving work and set a dangerous precedent. Indeed, there has already been a chilling effect, with human rights defenders and humanitarian organisations forced to halt their human rights work in Greece and other EU countries’. On 13 January, the espionage charges were dropped by the Court. 98 Prosecutions of activists working with migrants continued in 2022 and early 2023, against the founders of the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM)99 and of the Aegean Boat Report (ABR), who were both subject to investigation and charged by Greek judicial authorities on the island of Kos for ‘forming or joining for profit and by profession a criminal organisation with the purpose of facilitating the entry and stay of third country nationals into Greek territory.”100 Legal access to the territory (beyond family reunification) Legal gateways to enter Greece are not provided to persons in need of international protection, and nor does Greece issue visas on humanitarian grounds. The only exception was in 2021, when Greece accepted 819 Afghan nationals 101 due to ‘the country’s commitment to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghan nationals in danger’. 2. Reception and identification procedure 2.1 The European Union policy framework: ‘hotspots’ The “hotspot approach” was first introduced in 2015 by the European Commission in the European Agenda on Migration as an initial response to the exceptional flows. 102 Its adoption was part of the immediate action to assist Member States, which were facing disproportionate migratory pressures at the EU’s external borders and was presented as a solidarity measure. The initial objective of the “hotspot approach” was to assist Italy and Greece by providing comprehensive and targeted operational support, so that the latter could fulfil its obligations under EU law and swiftly identify, register and fingerprint incoming migrants, channel asylum seekers into asylum procedures, implement the relocation scheme and conduct return operations.103 In order to achieve this goal, EU Agencies, namely the EUAA (previously EASO), Frontex, Europol and Eurojust, worked alongside the Greek authorities within the context of the hotspots. 104 The hotspot approach was also expected to contribute to the implementation of the temporary relocation scheme, proposed by the European Commission in September 2015. 105 Therefore, hotspots were envisaged initially as reception and registration centres, where all stages of administrative procedures concerning 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 ‘My concerns were compounded by accounts I received during my country visit to Greece in June 2022 detailing how fear of criminalisation has spread among human rights defenders working in the field of migration in the country. As I underlined in my preliminary observations following the visit, solidarity should never be punished and compassion should never be put on trial’.: UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, ‘Human rights defenders on trial in Greece’, published on 09 January 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3MVFVtp France24, Greek court drops spying charges against migrant rescuers, January 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3BQKu1R. Asylum Campaign (Καμπάνια για το Άσυλο) Press Release, 21 December 2022 (Update on the ongoing persecution of Human Rights Defender Panagiotis Dimitras). The attempt to silence human rights defenders continues. What remains to be decided are its accompanying measures, available at: https://bit.ly/45BXpT4. Human Rights Watch, ‘Greece: Migrant Rights Defenders Face Charges, End Judicial Harassment of Migrant Rights Activists; Respect Asylum Obligations’, January 26, 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/43ifSlx. MoMA, Press release, 23 November 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3yzVCzV. European Commission, European Agenda on Migration, COM(2015) 240, 13 May 2015. European Commission, The hotspot approach to managing migration flows, 11 September 2015, available at: http://bit.ly/2kESJFK. Ibid. European Commission, Council Decisions (EU) 2015/1523 of 14 September 2015, OJ 2015, L239/146 and 2015/1601 of 22 September 2015, establishing provisional measures in the area of international protection for the benefit of Italy and Greece, OJ 2015, L248/80, available at: https://bit.ly/2wWHXVE. 38