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

has taken place. After the interview, the police transfer the interview records to the Ministry of
Public Order.
In many cases asylum seekers are arrested by the police as illegal entrants. According to a
Ministerial Decision of 1992 (the conformity of which has been questioned, in relation to the
Constitution), asylum seekers who have applied for asylum after being arrested for an illegal stay
in Greece should remain detained until a final decision on their asylum application has been
made.
There is no specific regulation for the maximum period of detention. However, there are general
limits provided by the Greek Constitution on “lawful conditions for arrest and detention”. Illegal
detention is also examined by the courts according to the constitutional provisions for the judicial
control of administrative acts (see “Detention” below).
The Greek Council for Refugees has appointed lawyers as legal correspondents in several towns
along the Northern and Eastern Greek borders. Their task is to provide legal aid to asylum
seekers (including those in detention), and to assist the authorities in dealing with asylum cases.
Applicants who are not dealt with under the port/airport procedure and who are not detained, are
required to stay at a place of residence chosen by them or assigned by the authorities for the
whole period of the examination of their claim. There is no direct control as such, but they must
report any change of address to the police. If they do not respect this obligation, they are
considered as being with “unknown residence” and their asylum procedure may be interrupted by
a decision of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Order. However, if within the space
of three months, the applicant is able to justify that his/her absence from the assigned place of
residence was due to force majeure, the decision will be cancelled and the asylum application
examined.
Accelerated procedure
According to Section 25(2–3) of the Aliens Act and Section 4 of the Presidential Decree No.
61/1999, an application for asylum should be examined as a priority and through an accelerated
procedure when:
– it is submitted upon arrival at a point of entry in a port or an airport, or;
– it is manifestly unfounded, and the claims of the applicant are clearly unfounded, fraudulent or
abusive, or;
– the applicant has arrived from a “safe third country”, where he/she is not in danger of being
persecuted for some of the reasons provided for in the Geneva Convention, nor is he/she in
danger of being returned to his/her country of nationality or usual residence.
First instance
First instance decisions in the accelerated procedure are made by the Head of the Division for
Police, Security and Order of the Ministry of Public Order, and are based upon relevant
recommendations from the Department of State Security of the Ministry. The decisions are based
on the police interviews.
The Head of the Division must make his/her decision within ten days. However, this is reduced to
24 hours in port and airport cases.
If the Head of the Division decides that the asylum application does not fulfil the requirements for
the accelerated procedure, he may transfer the application to the normal procedure.
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