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SECRETARIAT / SECRÉTARIAT SECRETARIAT OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS SECRÉTARIAT DU COMITÉ DES MINISTRES Contact: John Darcy Tel: 03 88 41 31 56 Date: 09/05/2019 DH-DD(2019)515 Document distributed under the sole responsibility of its author, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. Meeting: 1348th meeting (June 2019) (DH) Communication from a NGO (Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)) (24/04/2019) in the M.S.S. group of cases v. Belgium and Greece (Application No. 30696/09) Information made available under Rule 9.2 of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers for the supervision of the execution of judgments and of the terms of friendly settlements. * * * * * * * * * * * Document distribué sous la seule responsabilité de son auteur, sans préjuger de la position juridique ou politique du Comité des Ministres. Réunion : 1348e réunion (juin 2019) (DH) Communication d’une ONG (Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)) (24/04/2019) dans le groupe d’affaires M.S.S. c. Belgique et Grèce (requête n° 30696/09) (anglais uniquement). Informations mises à disposition en vertu de la Règle 9.2 des Règles du Comité des Ministres pour la surveillance de l’exécution des arrêts et des termes des règlements amiables. DH-DD(2019)515: Rule 9.2 Communication from a NGO in M.S.S. v. Greece. Document distributed under the sole responsibility of its author, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. DGI r..i 24 AVR. 2019 GREEK SERVICE DE L’EXECUTION COUNCIL DES ARRETS DE LA CEDH ~RE FU GEES SUBMISSION OF THE GREEK COUNCIL FOR REFUGEES TO THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE IN THE CASE OF M.S.S. v. BELGIUM & GREECE (Appl. No 30696/09) AND RELATED CASES -------------------------------------------------------- 1348th (Human Rights) meeting (June 2019) (DH) -------------------------------------------------------- The Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) is a Greek Non-Governmental Organization, founded in 1989, which provides legal assistance and social support to persons in need of international protection in Greece. Inter alia, the Greek Council for Refugees has a consultative status in the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2001 and participates in the Greek National Commission for Human Rights (GNCHR) since 1999. During the previous years, GCR has communicated to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe a series on selected issues, within the framework of the execution of the ECtHR judgment M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece (appl. no. 30696/09) according to art. 9 of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers for the supervision of the execution of judgments and of the terms of friendly settlements. Without underestimating the progress made since the issuance of the M.S.S. judgment in 2011, the Greek asylum and reception system faces new challenges, while a number of systemic and endemic shortcomings persist. In particular, the impact of the closure of the so-called Balkan route in 2016, which resulted in an important number of applicants remaining and applying for asylum in Greece, and the impact of the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement on the asylum procedure and the reception conditions in Greece, should be assessed. In March 2019, the latest update of the AIDA Country Report on Greece – drafted by the Greek Council for Refugees- has been published under the Asylum Information Database platform, managed by the European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE). Said Report tracks numerous legislative, policy and practice developments relating to the asylum procedure, reception conditions, detention of asylum seekers and protection of minors in Greece. Pursuant to Art 9(2) of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers for the supervision of the execution of judgments and of the terms of friendly settlements, GCR would like to submit to the Committee of Minister the recent updated AIDA Country Report on Greece- GREEK COUNCIL FOR REFUGEES – SPECIAL CONSULTATIVE STATUS -----WITH THE UN (ECOSOC) 25 SOLOMOU STR., ATHENS 106 82, GREECE TEL: 0030 210 38 00 990 | FAX: 0030 210 38 03 774 | EMAIL: [email protected] 1 DH-DD(2019)515: Rule 9.2 Communication from a NGO in M.S.S. v. Greece. Document distributed under the sole responsibility of its author, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. r..i GREEK COUNCIL ~RE FU GEES annexed to the present document, with a view to assisting the latter in its evaluation of the execution of the M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece, the measures taken to date and the situation that applicants face in practice. Inter alia the updated AIDA Report on Greece, documents and further analyses the following issues:1 Access to the Asylum Procedure:2 Without underestimating the number of applications lodged in 2018 (66,969), access to asylum on the mainland continued to be problematic throughout 2018. Access to the asylum procedure for persons detained in pre-removal facilities is also a matter of concern. On many occasions in 2018, GCR has found third- country nationals, including persons belonging to vulnerable groups, detained on the basis of a removal order issued due to ‘lack of legal documentation’ according to the justification provided by the police, who argued that, despite multiple efforts, they did not manage to gain access to the asylum procedure through Skype. In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) confirmed that “the possibility of making an asylum application in practice is a conditio sine qua non for the effective protection of aliens in need of international protection. In case that unhindered access to the asylum procedure is not ensured by the domestic authorities, asylum seekers cannot benefit from the procedural safeguards associated with this procedure and can be arrested and placed in detention at any time. It must be noted that, even if the examination of the asylum application is guaranteed by an effective, reliable and serious procedure, the latter are meaningless if the person concerned does not have the possibility of seeing his application registered for a long time”.3 Push backs:4 Following an increasing number of cases of alleged push backs at the Greek- Turkish border of Evros in 2017, allegations of push backs were systematically reported in 2018 as well. The persistent allegations of summary returns (push backs) have been decried inter alia by UNHCR, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, the National Commission for Human Rights and civil society organisations. For example, as noted by the CPT, during their visit in Greece, the delegation “received several consistent and credible allegations of informal forcible removals (push-backs) of foreign nationals by 1 All data mentioned below are based on the official data provided by the Greek Authorities or other actors as mentioned. The exact sources and more detailed analysis can be found in the respective chapters of the AIDA Report on Greece, Update 2018, annexed to the present document. Information are updated as of 31 December 2018, unless otherwise stated. 2 AIDA Report on Greece, Update 2018, pp. 39-42. 3 ECtHR, A.E.A. v. Greece, application no 39034/12, 15 March 2018, para 85. 4 AIDA Report on Greece, Update 2018, pp. 27-29. GREEK COUNCIL FOR REFUGEES – SPECIAL CONSULTATIVE STATUS -----WITH THE UN (ECOSOC) 25 SOLOMOU STR., ATHENS 106 82, GREECE TEL: 0030 210 38 00 990 | FAX: 0030 210 38 03 774 | EMAIL: [email protected] 2 DH-DD(2019)515: Rule 9.2 Communication from a NGO in M.S.S. v. Greece. Document distributed under the sole responsibility of its author, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. r..i GREEK COUNCIL ~RE FU GEES boat from Greece to Turkey at the Evros River border by masked Greek police and border guards or (para-)military commandos”. According to the allegations, reported push-back operations in Evros follow a pattern of arbitrary arrest of newly arrived persons entering the Greek territory from the Turkish land borders, de facto detention, and transfer to the border from where they are pushed back to Turkey, without having the opportunity to apply for international protection in Greece, and thus prevented from accessing asylum in practice. No proper official investigation has been launched following these allegations. An ex officio investigation as launched by the Ombudsman in June 2017 has not been finalised yet. Moreover, an investigation of the Public Prosecutor of Orestiada (Evros) has been initiated in March 2019.5 Capacity of the Asylum Service and duration of the procedure:6 At the end of 2018, the Asylum Service operated in 23 locations throughout the country, compared to 22 locations at the end of 2017 and 17 locations at the end of 2016. Moreover, the number of employees of the Asylum Service, distributed across the Central Asylum Service, RAO and AAU, was 679 at the end of 2018, compared to 515 at the end of 2017. Following a reform introduced in May 2018, in case of urgent need, Greek-speaking EASO personnel can carry out any administrative procedure needed for processing applications. i.e. including in the regular procedure. The capacity of the Asylum Service should be assessed by taking into consideration the fact that while the number of EU-wide asylum applications dropped by 10% compared to 2017, the number of applications with the Greek Asylum Service rose by 14%; 66,969 applications in 2018 compared to 58,642 in 2017. Greece received 11% of the total number of applications submitted in the EU, meaning that it was the Member State with the third largest number of applications, following Germany (28%) and France (19%).