legal and social conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in ...

The granting of humanitarian status is not normally automatically considered in the asylum
decision and requires a special application to the Secretary General of the Ministry of Public
Order (MPO). However, in some cases, the Minister awards humanitarian status instead of
refugee status after considering the applicant’s appeal against the first instance negative
decision.
A residence permit for humanitarian reasons constitutes a special status under which the person
is protected against deportation, has the right to work and is entitled to receive medical care. The
permit is granted for one year and is renewable annually for as long as the circumstances which
justified its granting continue to prevail.
According to the statistics of the MPO, 407 residence permits for humanitarian reasons were
granted or renewed in 1999.
Temporary protection
Current Greek legislation does not include any general provisions for temporary protection.
According to section 25(6) of the Aliens Act, a special regime of temporary protection for specific
groups of aliens fleeing to Greece for reasons of force majeure can be established by a joint
decision of several Ministers. However, such decision has not yet been made.
Greece did not receive Kosovo Albanians under the UNHCR Humanitarian Evacuation
Programme in spring 1999. The few Kosovo Albanians who came to Greece applied for asylum
immediately and were processed under normal Greek asylum determination procedure.
Rejection at the border
The conditions for legal entry into Greece are laid down in Section 6 of the Aliens Act, which
requires the possession of a valid passport or travel document and, if necessary, a visa.
According to Section 6(5) of the Act, an alien (other than EU-national) may be prohibited entry
when:
– he/she suffers from a disease deemed to constitute a danger to public health;
– he/she does not have the means to support him/herself and his/her family;
– he/she is in transit in Greece and does not have a visa for the country of destination, if this is
required;
– he/she is included in the list of the unwanted aliens compiled by the MPO;
– he/she enters with the purpose of finding a job or practising a business activity or an
independent profession and he/she does not have the necessary certification from the Greek
consulate, which has issued the visa;
– it can be proven from the circumstances that he/she intends to remain in Greece as an
immigrant without prior approval, or that he/she may constitute a danger to public order or to
the country’s security;
– his/her travel document does not secure return to the country of origin.
However, according to Section 1 of the Presidential Decree No. 61/99, an alien who applies for
asylum in Greece, either at a border point or within the country, on the grounds of his/her fear of
persecution because of race, religion, nationality, social class or political opinion is considered as
an asylum seeker according to the Geneva Convention, and “his[her] removal from the country is
by no means permitted until a final judgement on his[her] claim has been reached”.
Consequently, asylum applications submitted in Greece, be it at the border or within the country,
cannot be rejected as inadmissible and applicants must be given access to the determination
procedure.
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Greece