Greece: Asylum Reform Delay Unacceptable

UNHCR Should Take Over Refugee Processing From Greek Government

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

Brussels) - The Greek government's failure to follow through on its promise to reform the country's broken asylum system creates an urgent need for  the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the European Commission to intervene, Human Rights Watch said today.

A presidential decree that would introduce emergency reforms, which had already been postponed until September 1, 2010, has been pushed back again for several months following the recent government reshuffle.  Full-scale reform of the system is now unlikely before the end of 2011, at the earliest.

"Despite its formal commitments, the Greek government has utterly failed to meet its most basic responsibilities to protect refugees," said Bill Frelick, Refugee Program director at Human Rights Watch. "The UN refugee agency has a mandate to protect refugees when a government is unable or unwilling. It needs to step in now and take over processing asylum claims."

The delayed presidential decree would have addressed the backlog of more than 45,000 cases and reinstated a flawed appeals procedure for rejected asylum seekers, but would not have addressed more fundamental reforms. The decree will also require review by the new minister of citizen protection, the Finance Ministry, the Council of State, and the president before it enters into force.

Substantive reforms to create a functioning asylum system, including an independent body for assessing claims and more effective appeals procedures, were expected to be introduced in late 2011. But they are now also likely to be delayed, Human Rights Watch said.

"The postponement of long-awaited, interim fixes means that Greece is not even back to square one in the process of repairing an asylum system in need of a complete overhaul," Frelick said.

The European Commission should also keep the pressure on Greece and support intervention by UNHCR, Human Rights Watch said. The Commission has taken the first step to hold Greece accountable for its violation of EU law, issuing two formal letters to Greece in a process known as an "infringement proceeding," which could ultimately lead to action in the European Court of Justice.  The letters were sent on November 3, 2009, and June 24, 2010.

Greece recently presented an action plan to the European Commission that lays out the government's reform agenda. The action plan will not improve conditions for asylum seekers, however, as long as actual changes are stalled, Human Rights Watch said. In light of the new delays, the Commission should send a reasoned opinion to Greece identifying concrete areas for improvement. A reasoned opinion would represent the next step in the infringement procedure.

"The Action Plan is empty rhetoric as long as asylum seekers have no real opportunity for protection," Frelick said. "The Commission should judge Greece by its actions."

The Greek government has repeatedly promised to overhaul the asylum system and to support those in need of protection. Its stated intention to reform, however, coincided with a severe financial crisis, which limited its ability to follow through on these promises.

Human Rights Watch highlighted the scale of the crisis in the November 2008 report "Stuck in a Revolving Door," the December 2008 report "Left to Survive," and the October 2009 report "Unsafe and Unwelcoming Shores."

The country has one of the lowest rates of granting refugee status for asylum seekers in Europe. In 2009, it granted refugee status to a mere 0.04 percent of applicants at first instance - 11 people out of almost 30,000 applicants. It also abolished the appeals mechanism in July 2009, leaving rejected asylum seekers with no way to challenge a negative decision, and leading UNHCR to suspend its formal role in the asylum procedure.

Filing an asylum application is very difficult, and interviews are typically conducted in a cursory manner, often without a qualified interpreter and by untrained police officials. In addition, the country provides almost no accommodations or other assistance for asylum seekers, with most in destitution and living in the streets.

Vulnerable groups are hit the hardest. Unaccompanied children, for instance, are left to their own devices and at risk of exploitation. Some asylum seekers in Greece have taken dramatic steps to solve their plight. A group of Iranian asylum seekers went on a hunger strike to demand refugee status. The Greek government recognized them as refugees only after their health had seriously deteriorated.

Greece faces a double burden due to its location and the European Union's Dublin II regulation, under which the first EU country an asylum seeker enters is generally responsible for examining that person's refugee claim. Migrants' fingerprints are entered into an EU-wide database so that the country of first entry can be identified.

This regulation puts an increased burden on countries at Europe's external borders, particularly Greece. Greece currently faces more than 10,000 requests by other EU member states that want to return migrants and asylum seekers there. In addition, it continues to receive a very high influx of migrants and refugees. About 75 percent of the 106,200 irregular migrants entering the EU in 2009 first arrived in Greece; that percentage has risen to 80 percent in the early months of 2010, The Economist reported.

The Belgian Presidency of the EU is currently seeking consensus on a modest but significant reform to the Dublin regulation proposed by the Commission that would allow the temporary suspension of Dublin returns in crisis situations, but the changes face significant opposition from some member states.

Currently, more than 750 requests to return people to Greece are blocked through intervention from the European Court of Human Rights, and far more are pending before national courts across Europe. Courts increasingly cite evidence of Greece's dysfunctional asylum system and lack of assistance to those seeking protection in decisions to block their return to Greece. Should Greece overhaul its asylum system and provide assistance to applicants, however, courts will be more likely to approve the returns under Dublin, and add to the country's burden again.

"Greece is seriously and unfairly overburdened," Frelick said. "EU member states need to recognize that, stop sending migrants back to Greece, and reform the Dublin regulation. Without that, the benefits of reforms in Greece will be undermined by ever greater numbers of returns from other EU states."

Despite its formal commitments, the Greek government has utterly failed to meet its most basic responsibilities to protect refugees. The UN refugee agency has a mandate to protect refugees when a government is unable or unwilling. It needs to step in now and take over processing asylum claims.

UN Concerned About Refugees’ Problems in Greece

The United Nations refugee agency says asylum seekers who find their way to Greece face a “humanitarian crisis” there.

The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says Greece’s system for handling refugees does not function properly and those needing international protection are not identified.

Conditions for asylum seekers in Greece are notoriously difficult, but a spokesman for the U.N. agency says most refugees arriving in Greece get no assistance. Many of the thousands of refugees arriving in Greece each year must live on the streets.

Human Rights Watch says the current Greek asylum system is unacceptable. The rights group is urging the U.N. refugee agency and the European Union to intervene.

Greece is a major entry point into Europe for refugees from North Africa and elsewhere, and the country has a backlog of tens of thousands of asylum requests.

Authorities in Athens say they are overwhelmed with asylum seekers and that the country’s economic crisis makes it hard to carry out needed reforms.

Some asylum seekers move on from Greece to other European destinations. If they are detected by authorities in another country. EU regulations order their return to the European point of entry where they arrived – in Greece.

The United Nations is calling on the EU to help Greece meet its international obligations.

WE ARE HUMANS ...

Thousands of Afghan refugees fleeing ethnic attacks in Afghanistanhave landed in Greece, a signatory to the EU convention on refugee protection. They have been attacked by racist gangs, sometimes aided by Greek police. The Greek government provides few or no basic services required by the EU convention. It is a human rights disaster ignored by most governments, NGOs, and the media.

if we knew that we wl die in one of these EU. country's we think we would love to prefer it in our country.. in EU .that the always say that here the have human rights or security peace or justice nothing ..here we can see different between nations . nationality's black . or white..

We are all humans their is no black or white different between nations there is no border for humans the god says that i create all humans free and with equal rights so we stand on it tell we are alive
we afghan people we know this that what the world is doing with is and what they did for us
Afghan national hero sayd like this that...
The fraud of the world is clear story for us.
lets see what the darkness nights wl bring for us..
big fraud is going on with afghan people and its since 1979..enough is enough ..

Memorial for the drowned refugees of October 2009

                                 Survivors of the accident with the rescued baby

We mourn the refugees that died during the attempt to overcome Fortress Europe on the 27th of October 2010.
Yalda 8 * Neda 10 * Mehdi 4 * Zakia * Tsima * Sonia 6 * Abdulfasl 3 * Zomaya
We thank the heroic fishermen who saved the lives of the survivors.

The Speech

We came together today, here in Korakas. A horrifying name – Raven is its meaning. A messenger of death. Today we gathered in Korakas for remembering the dead.
We gathered for giving back a piece of dignity to those who survived. A piece of dignity that was lost on the way to Europe, like the passports or the photographs showing the faces of the beloved ones that disappeared in the water. We gathered to give back a piece of dignity to those who might even feel that having survived is a betrayal to those who died. We want to give back a piece of dignity, also to those whose death disappeared – right here – into the senselessness of the European borders.
Here and today, at this place of failure, we want to pause and create a space for all those who lost their lives. Remembering here means to save the stories of the uncounted faces of those who lost their lives at the borders of Europe from the tremendous arrogance of the posterity.
Their death is the death in search for freedom. And that concerns all of us. So let us speak together.
Yalda – She lives!
Neda – She lives!
Mehdi – He lives!
Zakia – She lives!
Tsima – She lives!
Sonia – She lives!
Abdulfasl – He lives!
Zomaya – She lives!
We shall never forget them.
We shall tear down the borders that killed them.

از ليسبوس تا به کابل FROM LESVOS TO KABUL

از ليسبوس تا به کابل

نظر به قرارداد کشور ترکیه و یونان که در سال 2001 مورد بحث و بعدآ به امضا رسيده بود مگر تا چند پيش اين پروتوکول اجرا نمي شد مگرر يونان کوشش رد مرز کردن محاجرين را از مرز خشکه اين کشور که در شمال با ترکيه مرز دارد بار حا اجرا کرده.

و پرتوکول جديد ميان اين دو کشور هم به امضا رسيده که سالانه 1000 محاجر غير قانوني را يونان به ترکيه ديپورت و بعدآ ترکيه انحا رد به کشوری که از ان امدند دیپورت می شوند..

و این پروتوکول در 2 ماه نزدیک اغاز خواهد شد.

The sign reads: Izmir Police Management, Foreigners department Deportation Center

کشور یونان امادگی نشان داده است و گفتند که هفته 20 نفر از جزیره لیسبوس ویا ساموس که تا فعلاً مشخص نیست به ترکیه خواهند سپرد..

این پروتوکول در هالی به امضا می رسد که در افغانستان .عراق .سومالیا هر روز جان صد ها انسان های بی گناه به ضریغه تانگ تفنگ و یا راکت    های کور کورانه و یا به ضریعه طیاره های بدون سر نشین گرفته می شود و قربانی بازی های سیاسی کشور های ابر قدرت می شوند ما هرکز خاموش نحواهیم نشست ما هم در جستجوی متوقف این پروتوکول ضد هقوق بشریت و انسانیت گام های خواهیم برداشت 

ما همه انسان هستیم و فرق نجاتی .مذهبی.قومی.رنگ و زبانی در میان ما مترح نیست

همه ما با هقوق مساوی و ازاد به دنیاأمدیم 

و ما حق داریم در وقت ضرورت در را زده و دست یاری و کمک انسانی تقاضا کنیم .

Translated By www.afghanmuhajer.blospot.com

Iranian Refugees Continue Their Struggle For Asylum in Athens

For two weeks around 60 Iranian, but also some Afghan and Pakistani refugees started a protest in the centre of Athens demanding asylum for all refugees. Almost all are trapped for years, even a decade, in the precarious status of the Temporary Residence Permit of Asylum Seekers (red card), without any information on their case, living with the fear of a final negative decision and without the chance to apply for asylum in another European countries due to Dublin II regulation.

Propylaea square is now occupied by the refugees, where they have put banners, distribute information material and stay night and day in the tents. They are trying to press the authorities and to attract the interest of local and international rights organizations and media and they are programming their next steps and the escalation of their struggle forms.

Statement by the Committee of Iranian Refugees in Greece

POLITICAL ASYLUM FOR ALL REFUGEES NOW!

the Commission of Iranian political refugees started its struggle on July 20 2010 [with a hunger strike] outside the UN High Commission for Refugees office in Athens. Our First victory came by gaining political asylum recognition to six Iranian hunger strikers. One of them, Hamid Sadeqi had sewn his mouth. Now we continue the struggle in the center of Athens at Propylaea (University of Athens), demanding asylum for all refugees!

We wait for the announcement of the starting day of the sessions of Asylum Committees by the government, as it was promised: “The transition process for Asylum under the new presidential decree is expected to be operational in September” (06/08/2010). No more fake promises!
There are thousands of refugees waiting in vain without any information on their case. Children born in Greece or came in an early age and now grow as if there is no future! What should the children and their families do to get asylum after 5,6 or even 12 years? Do they also need to sew their mouths?

We fight for the vindication of all refugees. We fight to stop the violation of our rights. We were persecuted by dictatorial regimes and illiberal states like Iran and suffered prisons, torture, death penalty, disappearances and also hunger and poverty. How to live in countries devastated by war such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia? How to survive in Pakistan, where half the country sank beneath the waters and the indifference of the government scatters despair, disease and death? How to live in African countries that have been ravaged by famine?
We urge Greek people, workers and youth, trade unions, student associations, organizations fighting for democratic rights to support the struggle that we start and will not stop unless we take our rights.