Border Management and Migration Controls in Greece Working Papers
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Working Papers Global Migration: Consequences and Responses Paper 2019/22, July 2019 Border Management and Migration Controls in Greece Greece Country Report Aggelos Ilias, Nadina Leivaditi, Evangelia Papatzani & Electra Petracou University of the Aegean Country Report - Greece © Electra Petracou Reference: RESPOND D 2.2 This research was conducted under the Horizon 2020 project ‘RESPOND Multilevel Governance of Migration and Beyond’ (770564). The sole responsibility of this publication lies with the author. The European Union is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at: [email protected] This document is available for download at https://www.respondmigration.com/ Horizon 2020 RESPOND: Multilevel Governance of Migration and Beyond (770564) 2 Country Report - Greece Contents List of Tables ..................................................................................................................................... 4 About the project ............................................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................ 6 Executive summary ........................................................................................................................... 7 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 8 2. Methodology .................................................................................................................................. 9 3. Developments since 2011 ............................................................................................................ 10 4. Legal Framework ......................................................................................................................... 13 4.1 Pre-entry measures ................................................................................................................ 13 Visas........................................................................................................................................ 13 Carrier sanction legislation ....................................................................................................... 15 Advance passenger information/ Passenger Name information ................................................ 17 Immigration liaison officers ....................................................................................................... 18 4.2. At the border controls ............................................................................................................ 19 Border surveillance .................................................................................................................. 23 Border surveillance at sea and sea rescue ............................................................................... 25 Hotspots .................................................................................................................................. 26 4.3. Internal Controls .................................................................................................................... 29 Internal control and apprehension measures ............................................................................ 36 4.4. Return, detention for return and readmission ......................................................................... 38 5. Key discourses and narratives of migration control ...................................................................... 41 Migration as a security issue ........................................................................................................ 41 EU burden sharing and solidarity.................................................................................................. 42 The discourses regarding the “refugee crisis” ............................................................................... 43 6. Implementation ............................................................................................................................ 45 6.1 Key actors .............................................................................................................................. 45 6.2 Key issues with implementing border and migration controls .................................................. 46 6.2.1 Pre-entry ......................................................................................................................... 46 6.2.2 ‘At the border’ .................................................................................................................. 47 6.2.3. Internal controls .............................................................................................................. 55 6.2.4. Returns and readmissions .............................................................................................. 59 6.3 Co-operation among sub-national, national and supranational actors ..................................... 60 7. Conclusions ................................................................................................................................. 61 Literature/References ...................................................................................................................... 64 Appendices...................................................................................................................................... 72 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................... 74 3 Country Report - Greece List of Tables Table 1: National Ministries ............................................................................................................. 45 Table 2: Key Actors at the Greek Shoreline ...................................................................................... 45 Table 3: Key Actors in Hot-Spots ...................................................................................................... 45 Table 4: Key Actors at Pre-Removal Centers ..................................................................................... 46 Table 5: Statistics regarding the Capacity and Occupancy of the RICs on the North-Eastern Aegean islands: 31 January 2019 .......................................................................................................... 52 Table 6: Capacity of pre-removal detention centres ......................................................................... 58 Table 7: Asylum seekers detained by pre-removal centre, 2017 ....................................................... 58 Table 8: Policy Recommendations ................................................................................................... 63 4 Country Report - Greece About the project RESPOND: Multilevel Governance of Mass Migration in Europe and Beyond is a comprehensive study of responses to the 2015 Refugee Crisis. One of the most visible impacts of the refugee crisis is the polarization of politics in EU Member States and Intra- Member State policy incoherence in responding to the crisis. Incoherence stems from diverse constitutional structures, legal provisions, economic conditions, public policies and cultural norms, and more research is needed to determine how to mitigate conflicting needs and objectives. With the goal of enhancing the governance capacity and policy coherence of the European Union (EU), its Member States and neighbours, RESPOND brings together fourteen partners from eleven countries and several different disciplines. In particular, the project aims to: • Provide an in-depth understanding of the governance of recent mass migration at macro, meso and micro levels through cross-country comparative research; • Critically analyse governance practices with the aim of enhancing the migration governance capacity and policy coherence of the EU, its member states and third countries. The countries selected for the study are Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iraq, Italy, Lebanon, Poland, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. By focusing on these countries, RESPOND studies migration governance along five thematic fields: (1) Border management and migration control, (2) Refugee protection regimes, (3) Reception policies, (4) Integration policies, and (5) Conflicting Europeanization. These fields literally represent refugees’ journeys across borders, from their confrontations with protection policies, to their travels through reception centres, and in some cases, ending with their integration into new societies. To explore all of these dimensions, RESPOND employs a truly interdisciplinary approach, using legal and political analysis, comparative historical analysis, political claims analysis, socio-economic and cultural analysis, longitudinal survey analysis, interview based analysis, and photo voice techniques (some of these methods are implemented later in the project). The research is innovatively designed as multi-level research on migration governance now operates beyond macro level actors, such as states or the EU. Migration management engages meso and micro level actors as well. Local governments, NGOs, associations and refugees are not merely the passive recipients of policies, but are shaping policies from the ground-up.