Greece Continues to Postpone Reform for Asylum Seekers

By Ricardo Zamora
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe Desk

ATHENS, Greece – The Greek government has failed to follow through on a January promise to reform its asylum system.  Under the current asylum procedure, Greece continues to recognize as few as 0.05% of asylum seekers as refugees in their first interview and leaves them with no guarantee against the risk of deportation back to their countries where they are subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment.

Human Rights Watch reports that Greece’s current policy is inconsistent with Article 39 of the EU’s procedures directive and articles 13 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.  Greek’s failure to adopt policies consistent with the EU directives have prompted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to withdraw from participation in Greece’s asylum procedure.  Human Rights Watch is urging the UNHCR to reconsider.

Earlier this year Greece proposed a presidential decree to adopt relevant emergency reforms to address asylum issues.  However, the decree, which was previously postponed until September 1, 2010, has been postponed once more, making it unlikely to be implemented before the end of 2011.

“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.”

But the delays are not entirely the government’s fault.  Serious domestic problems are also prohibiting Greece from being able to meet the demands of asylum reform proponents.  For example, the recent financial crisis has drained the government’s already scant resources, making it difficult to implement the changes set out in presidential decree.

Greece is also receiving burdens from the international arena.  Due to its location at Europe’s external border, it has to address over 10,000 requests by other EU nations wanting to funnel their own asylum seekers to Greece.  Thus, Greece has to process not only the asylum seekers of other EU nations, but its own as well.

“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.”

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – Greece: Asylum Reform Delay Unacceptable – September 20, 2010

Human Rights Watch – Open Letter to the Government of Greece on Reform of the Asylum and Immigration System – July 28, 2010

UNHCR – UNHCR Chief Gutteres Backs Planned Greek Asylum Reform – January 20, 2010

Author: Impunity Watch Archive