Out of the spotlight: The rights of foreigners and minorities are still a grey area 65 5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Conclusion Throughout this report an interconnecting thread has been the documented failure of the authorities to ensure that persons residing in Greece who are not members of the Greek majority group enjoy the human rights to which they are entitled, whether they be asylum-seekers, migrants or members of minorities. This report has documented the mechanisms that contribute to this failure. Although Amnesty International has also received reports of violations of the rights of members of the majority Greek population, it is of grave concern that such reports were vastly outnumbered by the number of similar violations of the rights of foreigners and members of minorities. There is thus an urgent need for the Greek government to meet its obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of marginalized groups and individuals. In this final chapter, Amnesty International makes recommendations to the Greek authorities, covering the four main areas of human rights violations covered in the report. 5.2 Recommendations regarding the protection of the rights of refugees Amnesty International has been informed that the Greek government is currently in the process of revising its migration policy. Such revision could have a profound impact not only on migrants’ rights in general, but also on refugee rights in particular. In this regard, the organization recommends that this revision also includes a review of the government’s legislation regarding refugee protection to ensure that: • Protocol No. 12 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is ratified; • the role of experts on refugee protection, such as UNHCR and Lawyers’ Association representatives, in the assessment of asylum applications is enhanced; • access to free, independent and competent legal advice at all stages of the asylum process is made available, including the provision of trained and independent interpreters in order to enable the lawyer to communicate effectively with the asylum-seeker; • adequate interpretation facilities, including written information on the asylum procedure in a language which they understand, are made available to applicants throughout the asylum process as well as to detainees in border police stations and detention centres; • the asylum determination procedure meets international standards of fairness, timeliness and impartiality. In this respect, closer scrutiny of first instance decision-making should be introduced in order to counter the current practice of blanket rejection of applications at first instance; Amnesty International 5 October 2005 AI Index: EUR 25/016/2005