(Ελληνικά) Giorgos Moutafis for SolidarityNow
Sorry, this entry is only available in Ελληνικά.
Category: #opentheislands
Greece: Government Defies Court on Asylum Seekers
Giorgos Moutafis for SolidarityNow
Reinstates Containment Policy That Keeps People Trapped on Islands
(Athens, April 25, 2018) – The Greek government’s move on April 20, 2018, overturning a binding court ruling ordering it to end its abusive policy of trapping asylum seekers on Greece’s islands raises rule of law concerns, 21 human rights and humanitarian organizations said today.
Rather than carrying out the April 17 ruling by the Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, the government issued an administrative decision reinstating the policy, known as the “containment policy.” It also introduced a bill on April 19 to clear the way to restore the policy in Greek law. Parliament members should oppose such changes and press the government to respect the ruling.
Parliament began discussing the draft law on April 24. But the government has preempted the debate on the bill, including the issue of the containment policy by reinstating it. On April 20, the new director of the asylum service reissued an administrative order setting down the reasons for the containment policy. Among grounds given to justify the restrictions imposed by the policy are the need to implement an EU-Turkey deal on migration and a broader public interest claim. But the decision goes against the Council of State ruling and Greece’s responsibilities under international, EU and Greek law, as it offers insufficient justification for the restrictions, the groups said.
The Council of State’s April 17 ruling said that Greece’s containment policy had no legal basis and that there were no imperative reasons under EU and Greek law justifying the restrictions to the freedom of movement of asylum seekers. It ordered the annulment of the administrative decision imposing the restrictions and permitted the free movement of asylum seekers arriving on the islands following the ruling’s publication. The ruling also highlighted that the disproportionate distribution of asylum seekers has overburdened the islands. The ruling is limited, however, applying only to new arrivals.
The draft law is currently being discussed before the parliament’s Standing Committee for Public Administration, Public Order and Justice and will be debated by the full parliament in the coming weeks. The bill seeks to provide a legal basis for the containment policy. It would incorporate into domestic law EU Directive 2013/33, which sets standards for the reception of asylum seekers. While the draft bill would possibly bring some improvements to the Greek reception system, the directive allows restricting the movement of asylum seekers when the government considers it necessary for rapid processing and effective monitoring of claims. The Greek government presumably believes that the legislation would provide a stronger legal basis for maintaining the containment policy.
Greece’s abusive containment policy was put in place in March 2016, with the support of the European Union and its member states. By the latest government count, more than 15,400 asylum seekers are on the Greek islands. Many are living in crowded and filthy processing centers, and many spent the winter in lightweight tents or even sleeping outside on the ground. The Greek government contends that the containment policy is necessary to carry out its commitment under the March 2016 EU-Turkey migration deal, under which asylum seekers must be returned to Turkey to have their asylum claims processed there, although the text makes no reference to such a policy.
The case was brought before the Council of State by the Greek Council for Refugees, a non-governmental organization providing legal support to asylum seekers. Nongovernmental groups began a campaign to #OpenTheIslands in December 2017, calling on Greece and its EU partners to transfer asylum seekers to the mainland before winter and end the containment policy.
In seeking to justify the containment policy, the Greek government, EU institutions, and governments point to increasing numbers of migrants and asylum seekers crossing the Aegean Sea, some fleeing intensified conflict in Syria. Yet there is no evidence that lifting the containment policy would be a pull factor, as Greece and others claim, especially given the largely closed borders along the Western Balkan migration route into Western Europe.
It is evident that the Greek authorities cannot meet the basic needs and protect the rights of asylum seekers while they remain on the islands, the groups said. The containment policy traps people in conditions below EU minimum standards, impedes their access to necessary services, and denies them access to fair and efficient asylum procedures because of the overcrowding on the islands and the lack of basic services.
Rather than restoring its abusive containment policy, the Greek Government should respect the rule of law, immediately carry out the Council of State ruling by allowing asylum seekers to move to the mainland, and along with its EU partners ensure protection for all asylum seekers in Greece, the groups said.
The government should rapidly expand safe accommodation and access to services on the mainland and create a system to move people quickly to mainland accommodation that provides for their medical and mental health needs while their asylum application is processed. The EU should look at sharing responsibility across member states and increasing availability of more safe and legal channels into the EU.
Containing asylum seekers on the Greek islands in substandard and appalling conditions that violate their rights and Greece’s international obligations cannot be justified for migration control purposes, the groups said.
Organizations Signing the Statement:
Advocates Abroad
Amnesty International
AEDH (Association Européenne pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme)
Caritas Hellas
European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE)
EuroMed Rights
FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights)
Gisti (Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigrés)
Greek Council for Refugees
Greek Forum of Refugees
Greek Helsinki Monitor
Human Rights Watch
HumanRights360
Jesuit Refugee Service
Lesbos Legal Center
Oxfam
PRAKSIS
Refugees International
Refugee Rights Europe
SolidarityNow
Terre des Hommes
GEOGRAPHICAL RESTRICTION OF ASYLUM SEEKERS ON THE GREEK ISLANDS: WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF THE RECENT GREEK COUNCIL OF STATE’S DECISION?
Giorgos Moutafis for SolidarityNow
Athens, April 19, 2018
SolidarityNow welcomes Ruling No 805/2018 of the Greek Council of State (the country’s Supreme Administrative Court) (“the Ruling”), which annuls the Asylum Service’s Decision (No 10464/31.5.2016) imposing geographical restrictions on six islands of the Eastern Aegean Sea (Lesvos, Samos, Chios, Leros, Rhodes and Kos). The case was brought forward by the Greek Council for Refugees.
The Ruling lifted the geographical restrictions on asylum seekers arriving to the islands from now onwards, given that the contested Asylum Service Decision did not set out the legal grounds for imposing such restrictions on asylum seekers’ freedom of movement and their confinement in Reception and Identification Centers (hotspots) on the islands (the so-called “containment policy”). In addition, the Ruling highlighted that the regime of geographical restriction within the aforementioned islands has resulted in unequal distribution of asylum seekers across the national territory, over-burdening and exercising significant pressure on specific regions.
Insofar there are no imperative reasons of public interest and migration policy that would justify restricting applicants of international protection to the Greek islands, the Court decided to annul the administrative decision imposing such restrictions and ordered the free movement of asylum seekers arriving to the islands following the Ruling’s publication. The Ruling, however, does not have retroactive effect, i.e., the geographical restriction will continue to apply to over 13.000 asylum seekers currently residing on the islands.
SolidarityNow greets the Ruling as a victory for human rights and asylum law in Greece, in line with our organization’s continuous pressure against the containment policy – through joined letters to the authorities (see here and here) and the #OpenTheIslands campaign, supported by many organizations during 2017.
However, we express our concerns regarding the implementation of the Ruling by the Greek Government and competent authorities:
- Firstly, the Ruling has no retroactive effect, which results in unequal treatment between asylum seekers already restricted on the islands, on one hand, and those who come after the Ruling and can freely move. Such discrimination could be explained by the difficulty around the immediate decongestion of the islands and the need to organize proper accommodation in the mainland. This could be resolved only by a Government decision providing for a timely and gradual decongestion of the islands, as part of a well-organized, nation-wide plan.
- Secondly, the Ministry of Migration Policy (“MoMP”) seems to be planning the imposition of geographical restrictions anew, on the basis of a law transposing EU Directive 2013/33. The draft law is already submitted to the Greek Parliament for voting (see the MoMP’s announcement in response to the Ruling).
Thus, we are keen to see how the Ruling will be implemented, anticipating the free movement of newly admitted asylum seekers on the Greek islands until the draft law is adopted, and geographical restrictions are potentially re-imposed by an executive decision of the Greek administration.
SolidarityNow strongly opposes the creation of a “multi-speed” asylum system, which randomly favors certain asylum seekers while violating the rights of others and transforming the Greek islands to “buffer zones”. We insist on the need to lift geographic restrictions altogether, along with the adoption of a strategic, long-term plan – at both national and European level – for an equal and fair distribution of refugees and asylum seekers throughout the Greek and EU territories, in accordance with the principles of refugee law and with respect for human rights.
Τimeline of the major events since the implementation of the EU-Turkey Deal
Since January 2015, more than 1 million people fleeing war, persecution and poverty entered or passed through Greece in search of safety and a better life, and more than 1,200 were reported dead or missing. During the latter part of 2015 and early 2016, selective and arbitrary admission policies were put in place by various European countries that eventually closed their borders to all migrants. On 20 March 2016, the EU-Turkey Deal came into effect whereby all migrants arriving irregularly on to the Greek islands would be returned to Turkey. This is a two-year timeline of the major events since the implementation of the EU-Turkey Deal, depicting policies and efforts that chip away at the rights and protections for asylum seekers arriving to the EU.
#STRANDED | JAMAL
Giorgos Moutafis for SolidarityNow
Jamal Daoud, 39 years-old, 2 months in Lesvos
“If I don’t have hope, I will die”
“My name is Jamal Daoud, I am 39 years-old and I am from Aleppo, Syria. In Syria I was working as a taxi driver. Our house was destroyed because of the war. I live at ‘eleonas’, outside the Moria camp, with my wife Feyrouz, who is 35 years-old, and our children. We have two boys, 14 and 15 years-old and a 12-year-old daughter. My wife’s cousin, 19-year-old Ferse, also lives with us. His mother is in Turkey. She wants to come to Mytilene, but she does not have any money. We arrived on the island 2 months ago. At first, we had a small tent, but now we are staying in a bigger one.
You know how life here at ‘eleonas’ is. You can see it. There is no life, but it is better than Turkey. I made a small tent for our dog too, and gave it a number, No1. We found our dog Poupi in Moria. We feel so tired because everything here is difficult, but we’d rather stay here for a year or two than go back to Turkey. They don’t like Kurdish people in Turkey.
Time in Moria passes. We collect wood from the mountain, we make a campfire and we sit by the fire. We play with Poupi and take him for long walks at the beach. There are two bathrooms here, which are far away from our tents.
If I don’t have hope, I will die. I just want my kids to go to school and my daughter to be happy. I want a warm house for us to live in. We don’t want anything else”.
STRANDED | INNOCENT
Giorgos Moutafis for SolidarityNow
Innocent Njeba, 32 years old, 6 months at Lesvos
“I know that one day I will leave this island”
I am from Cameroon. I am 32 years old. I have been here for two months. I left my country because of political instability. I was brutally beaten by the police, because I am from the English part of Cameroon which is in conflict with the French part.
When we go to the French part to find a job they won’t give a job to the English people. So there is a lot of marginalization, discrimination against the English people. In October 2016, the English part of Cameroon stood up and said that we need our independence, we need to live better because it is too much. We have everything, we have petrol, raw materials, they come from our soil, they stole our petrol, everything we have. They took advantage of us and we don’t even have roads. They started a demonstration to call for dialogue, to solve this. The police shoot the civilians who peacefully demonstrated.
I left because I was brutalized, and my life was not safe. The police hit me, if you can see my fingers are broken, I was in hospital for two weeks. Someone gave me information that the police were coming after me. So that was the reason I left, I was forced to flee the hospital, without completing my treatment. As I’m talking to you right now I have problem with my chest, my fingers, were broken.
I was working. I had a small office; I was in building construction, constructing houses. I came here on the 21st of November. I went from Cameroon to Turkey. I was in Turkey for two months and paid a smuggler to get me here.
Life here in Greece is not easy; it’s horrible. We are not safe here, because the food we eat is not good. It is very hard to live in the tent. It’s cold and we don’t have heating, we have nothing. Then, you live with people with unpredictable character. Our life is not secure in the camp.
I live in a tent with seven people.
I came here in Greece because I wanted to be secure. At times I ask people how can I live in Greece, because I really love to live in Greece. But Greeks say there are no jobs, Greeks are suffering from the crisis, and to live here and have nothing it would be terrible. I want to make a family, but if you are in a country doing nothing, no matter the security, it just can’t work.
I know that one day I will leave this island. I am optimistic that I will go to Athens.
#STRANDED | Harikajen
Giorgos Moutafis for SolidarityNow
Harikajen Satkunaraj, 23 years old, 3 months in Lesvos
“My dream is to go to Athens”
“My name is Harikajen and I am 23 years old. I am coming from Sri Lanka. My father was a member of the “Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam” militant organization. In Sri Lanka Tamil people are considered terrorists. They are arresting us and torturing us. They tied me up to a bicycle and dragged me. They threw stones at my house. I was working at the marketing department of a company and my boss -because of my origin- asked me to resign. I was afraid. I had to leave my country because the police ran after me. I wanted to be saved.
I started my journey in autumn. I have been living outside the camp of Moria for 3 months. It is difficult to communicate with the other people here. We are only 4 people from Sri Lanka. We support each other. I speak better English, and I help the others with the translation. There’s always something bad happening here. We are all afraid. People are hungry, and they are fighting when they are waiting in the food-queue.
I have asthma and chest pain. They gave me paracetamol, but it didn’t do anything. I cannot stay here anymore, it’s like a jail. It’s very cold. I can’t sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night terrified by nightmares. I am thinking all the things I’ve been through in my life. I have suffered a lot. I am crying. I think of my mother and my sister. They are alone in Sri Lanka. I have many problems, but I keep smiling. Smiles are innate, and people want to see you smile. My dream is to go to Athens. Many people from Sri Lanka are there. All we can do is wait and wait. The only thing that I want is to be saved”.
Joint Press Conference: Two years after the EU-Turkey Deal
To mark the occasion of the second anniversary of the EU-Turkey Joint Statement (Deal, in essence), yesterday we held, along with other NGOs, a joint press conference titled: “Two years after the EU-Turkey Deal: a humanitarian tragedy for refugees and asylum seekers”.
The press conference was hosted at the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers (ΕΣΗΕΑ). Participants included journalists, as well as representatives of EU embassies, state institutions, and civil society organizations. The conference speakers covered the main aspects of the refugee issue from a humanitarian, legal, and political perspective.
Jenny Cavounidis, Board member of SolidarityNow, underlined the absence of a coherent strategy for a coordinated and holistic refugee response at both national and European level. Ms. Cavounidis conveyed the experience of SolidarityNow about the problems brought upon by the EU-Turkey Deal and its ongoing consequences on the overall management of the refugee response in Greece.
Ms. Cavounidis underlined “the urgent need for a holistic response to the problems arising from the refugee issue, with a central, visionary, and long-term planning for the whole country”. She also stressed:
“This past winter we experienced once more the lack of a central mechanism for refugee management on the islands. Despite the deplorable conditions in the islands’ camps since the summer, and although the number of residents way exceeded each camp’s capacity, the decongestion of the islands started to take place only when the situation hit rock bottom due to the worsening weather conditions. Then, in November, the Government rushed to transfer people to the mainland, to hosting facilities that were urgently created or adjusted, without proper planning”.
The Director of Amnesty International/Greek section, Gabriel Sakellaridis, and Eva Cossé, Researcher for Greece for the organization Human Rights Watch, analyzed the current situation on the islands for the asylum seekers and refugees stranded there two years after the Deal, stressing the need to lift the geographical restriction.
From a medical care perspective, Agapios Terzidis, Vice-President of the Board of the Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO), presented the program Philos (Emergency Health Response to Refugee Crisis) and the challenges faced by KEELPNO during its implementation.
Vasileios Papadopoulos, Coordinator of the Legal Unit of the Greek Council for Refugees, set out the legal effects of the EU-Turkey Deal. Mr. Papadopoulos emphasized the need to move refugees and migrants from the islands to the mainland, while he also explained that the presumption that Turkey is a safe third country is highly problematic, both from a legal and political perspective.
Yonous Muhammadi, President and Coordinator of the Greek Forum of Refugees, and the cultural mediator Yasaman Heidarpour from the organization Melissa Network, talked about the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees on the Greek islands. In particular, Ms. Heidarpour told her own story as a refugee who reached Europe after fleeing Iran.
*The conference was organized by the following NGOs:
SolidarityNow
Amnesty International – Greek section
Greek Council for Refugees
Greek Forum of Refugees
Melissa Network
Human Rights Watch
#STRANDED | AHMED
Giorgos Moutafis for SolidarityNow
Ahmed Essa, 30 years-old, 2 months in Lesvos
“I love her and she is waiting for me to go and find her”
“My name is Ahmed and I am 30 years-old. I am a civil engineer. I learnt English in Syria. I have been in Eleonas for the last 2 months. I came to Greece through Turkey. I gave 500 dollars to a smuggler and I crossed the sea by a boat.
I have seen everything in my life. I have lost two brothers. I don’t know if they’re dead, but I saw their names in a list of ISIS victims on the internet. Two years ago my brother’s children were asking where was their father. ISIS has arrested many of my relatives. I was terrified. They have also threatened me, they took all my legal papers. I was forced to leave my home and seek refuge in the mountains. For about 100 days I was sleeping under the trees. It is very hard to know that you are not able to go to your home. All these have affected me. I cannot sleep or eat, I remember everything over and over again.
Life in Moria is very hard. We have nothing here. We don’t have electricity, hot water and the food is bad. Every day something bad is happening. I live in a summer tent with seven people whom I met here. I can’t sleep at night because of the cold. We asked for a heater, but we didn’t get any answer. I bought the clothes I am wearing when I was in Turkey.
We do the same things every day. The same routine. We wake up at 7.30 and have our breakfast. Then, we sleep again. At the noon, we stand in line to get our food and we go to the internet café, where we can use the internet and talk to our families. We have our dinner at 5.00 and then we go back to our tents. We feel sad. We remember our families, our university, our homes, but we can’t go back. We lost everything, but we hope for a better future.
My parents and siblings are in Syria. We talk every day. I hope to go back to my country when the war is over. We didn’t want to make this trip, but we had no choice.
I hope to go to Holland or to Germany. My girlfriend, Asma, is in Germany. I love her, and she loves me and she is waiting for me to go to her. I met her in Damascus two years ago. She went to Turkey, but I didn’t have the money to leave then, because ISIS had arrested my brothers. When I finally managed to leave, the borders were closed. I love her so much. She is a very beautiful girl. I cannot describe my feelings for her. When I talk to her, I am happy. She is the only thing that makes me happy in Moria”.
#Stranded | Aymen
Giorgos Moutafis for SolidarityNow
Aymen Rafi, 39 years-old, 6 months in Lesvos
“I need to feel human again”
“My name is Aymen Rafi, I am 39 years-old and I am from Iraq. I have studied chemistry. After finishing my studies, I took AutoCAD training classes. The diploma I got gave me the opportunity to work for big telecommunication companies. I had a good salary, a company car and cellphone. I have documents, here with me, that prove everything I tell you. I had a very good life in Iraq. Eventually, the government decided to send me to a hospital in Baghdad. They told me that I had to work there for 5 years in order to get the chemical analyst certification. I worked as a nurse for the first two years, and for the rest three years as a surgical assistant. I didn’t manage to get my certification, because I had to flee my country to save my life.
I am a Sunni. The Iraqi police and government was chasing me because of my religious beliefs. They arrested me, and I spent four days in prison. There, they tortured me by using electroshocks or by hitting me very hard on the head. My father had to bribe the police in order to release me. My father advised me to leave the country; this is why I left everything behind and I came here.
I arrived on the island in October 2017. I live in Moria refugee camp, at the third level which is for the “single men”; among us are Iraqis and a few Syrians. It is very bad here. At first, they put me in a small tent along with four other men. I decided to buy a tent with my own money, because I couldn’t sleep. So far, I have moved my tent four times. I told the camp managers that I will not move again. They don’t offer isoboxes to “single men”, only to families.
We face many problems as there is no hot water and the toilets are dirty. The problem of cleanliness is permanent. Last night, we couldn’t sleep due to cold and the strong wind. Three tents have already been destroyed because of the wind. We don’t have heating, nor electricity. We charge our phones in a isobox.
The war destroyed our lives and we feel broken here. We thought that we were coming to a safe place. We might feel safer than before, people here seem nice, but we don’t have what we need. We asked for heaters and to be moved into isoboxes, but we never got an answer.
I need peace and I need to feel human again. I need good food and to be healthy. I want to feel safe. I want to smile. I want to leave from Moria, but I don’t have any papers. I am stranded here”.