instructions in their asylum office files, including a valid power of attorney. Lawyers were not informed by the Asylum Service or the newly appointed registry lawyer of this change, thus preventing them from reclaiming the case. ______(2) State-funded legal aid during the judicial review of the case by administrative Courts Asylum seekers are not automatically entitled to free legal aid. Foreign nationals are only eligible for state legal aid and exemptions from legal costs if they fulfil the eligibility criteria.54 For legal aid for judicial review by Administrative Courts, foreign nationals must apply at the secretariat of the competent Administrative Court of First Instance - i.e. the Administrative Court of first instance of Athens or Thessaloniki. This is regardless of whether applicants are held in a remote accommodation centre hundreds of kilometres away. An applicant is required to submit an application in Greek and provide documents demonstrating their inability to bear the costs of 55 annulment proceedings. Should an applicant ultimately be entitled to legal aid, they are not permitted to select their own legal counsel. Lawyers are appointed by court order from a general list of lawyers paid for by the State for handling administrative cases. The lack of interpretation services for free legal aid programmes often precludes clients from communicating with their lawyers in a language they understand. In this context, access to legal aid to challenge negative decisions is limited. 56 d) Effectiveness of remedies for asylum seekers ______(1) Effectiveness of remedies against de facto detention orders The authorities on Samos seek to justify and circumvent the obligations and safeguards of detention by labelling the blanket detention of new arrivals as a “restriction of freedom”. 57This is done by the issuance of a two-stage order, first for five days and then by a further automatically issued 20 day extension order. As noted above, these orders are issued after the start of the 58 period of detention. Thus, the failure to provide such a written order prevents asylumseekers from challenging the administrative detention procedures. Between September and December 2023, IHR intervened before the RIS in the cases of 170 de facto detained people. To date, IHR has not received a written response from the RIS in any of these cases. ______(2) Effectiveness of remedies after a first instance rejection decision: quasi-judicial appeals 59 Procedural requirements at the Appeals Authority such as the reduction of deadlines for lodging certain appeals, the removal of their suspensive effect, and the obligation to be represented by a lawyer for the appeal to be admissible, 60 have made access to the appeals procedure challenging. _________________________________ 54. Article 76(3), Greek Law 4939/2022. 55. In the 12-month period preceding the present submission, 50 requests for legal aid were submitted to the courts by Equal Legal Aid, for applicants meeting the eligibility criteria. Of these, 18% were rejected, which resulted in asylum seekers being deprived of representation and the opportunity to submit a request before the competent court. 56. Over the past 14 months, there has been a notable increase in the number of requests for pro bono representation in asylum cases. These requests now constitute the majority of requests for legal assistance received by the organisation’s hotline and referral forms. A total of 229 requests for pro bono representation on appeal represents 28% of all requests made. Due to a lack of financial and human resources, our organisation was only able to provide representation on appeal for 26 of these cases, representing 14% of the total requests for representation on appeal. 57. Article 40, Greek Law 4939/2022. 58. Ellen Allde. 2023. “Sanctioned ignorance” and the detention of people seeking asylum in the EU-funded CCAC on Samos. Available at: https://ihaverights.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/RL-Paper-%E2%80%98Sanctioned-ignorance.pdf. 59. Athina Kalogridi. 2023. ‘Who really gets a second chance in Greece’. Equal Legal Aid. Available at: https://www.equallegalaid.org/qui-a-une-veritable-seconde-chance-en-grece/. 60. Athina Kalogridi. 2023. ‘Who really gets a second chance in Greece’. Equal Legal Aid. Available at: https://www.equallegalaid.org/qui-a-une-veritable-seconde-chance-en-grece/. 07