Copin ng with a fundam mental rights emeergency – The situ uation of people crossing the Greeek border in an iirregular mannerr Pro ocessingg of irregular m migrants From m a fundamental rights peerspective, a central goal of all processing arrangeements for arriving a persons is to enssure that no o one is return ned directly o or indirectly tto territoriess where theyy face a he right to life or threat of persecution, a reeal risk of ttorture, arbiitrary deprivvation of th 27 parable harm m. irrep Persons appreheended after crossing thee border aree brought to o the competent police sstation d and proceessed on th he basis of Law 3386/2 2005 on thee entry where they are interviewed 28 dence and so ocial integration of third ccountry natio onals. resid The process includes essentiially search and a temporaary confiscattion of selectted personal items ones), a brieef interview by the Helleenic police, a nationalityy screening, taking (e.g. mobile pho nd sending the t (paper) file to the P Police Directo orate to preepare a phottos and fingeerprints29, an deteention and/or deportation n decision. Figu ure 4: Proc cessing perrsons appre ehended crrossing the e border irrregularly Sourrce: FRA, 2011 27 UNHCR Protection Policy Paper “Maaritime interceptiion operations an nd the processingg of international protection claimss: legal sttandards and policy considerationss with respect to extraterritorial processing“, availaable at htttp://www.unhcrr.org/refworld/category,POLICY,,,,44cd12d3a2,0.htm ml. 28 Co odification of legiislation on the en ntry, residence an nd social integration of third‐counttry nationals on G Greek territory, Laaw 33 386/2005 (as ameended). 29 A procedure obserrved and timed byy the FRA during its visit. It was carried out by policce officers manually – no electronicc scan of fin ngerprints is available – and lasted d approximately 220’ for two persons processed simultaneously. The reports are also h hand w written and need tto be subsequenttly typed to a PC b by police officers, as no civilian adm ministrative staff is available. Evideently, th his does not indicate an optimal usse of the scarce police human reso ources. 21