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Even though the nationality is only recommended by a
Frontex officer, it is taken for granted by the Greek authorities. The detainee is not informed about the nationality
under which he or she has been registered and has no
means to challenge it.
We saw cases where Afghans were registered as
Algerians, Turks or Iranians, Algerian and Moroccans as
Syrians, Sudanese as Nigerian, Iraqis as Syrians, francophone Africans as Nigerian, Palestinians as Syrians.
In cases where the GCR-lawyers were informed about
the flawed registration they have repeatedly requested a
second screening. The majority of refugees, who were
re-screened were assigned a different nationality.
For some nationalities the identification procedure also
includes the visit of officers from foreign embassies (e.g.
embassies of Nigeria and Santo Domingo). During the
last year, officers from the Nigerian embassy visited the
border police stations and detention centres in Evros
seeking to identify their nationals in detention. In reported
cases, one Sierra Leonean (M.K.) and one Congolese (Y.A.)
were identified by the Nigerian embassy officers as
Nigerian and were at risk of deportation to, or even deported to Nigeria61.
Errors in registration expose detainees to the risk of deportation to the wrong country. Afghans, for instance, who are
registered as Iranians risk readmission to Turkey. If not sent
back to Iran, they can be deported to Afghanistan. French
speaking Africans, who’ve been identified and registered as
Nigerians, can be deported to Nigeria.
H.M. from Afghanistan was registered as Iranian. Even
though GCR requested a re-screening he was returned to
Turkey. There he was recognised as Afghan and deported
to Kabul.62
A.A. and M.K. from Sudan were registered as Nigerians.
They were interviewed in English, despite the fact that their
mother tongues were Arabic and Fur. During their detention in Venna in January 2011 a GCR-lawyer sent a fax requesting the re-screening of them.63 In neither of the two
Detainees are filling in registration forms
61 The »identification« of the nationality by representatives of
the Nigerian Embassy took place in the Aliens Department in
Athens in 2011. Both of the cases ( M.K. and Y.A.) were francophone and provided to GCR lawyers documents proving their
nationality.
62 See: Chapter 4.1. case of H.M.
63 GCR fax ref. no. 8/2011
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