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Resolution 2118 (2016)
Refugees in Greece: challenges and risks – A European responsibility
1. Europe’s panicked response to the
refugee and migration crisis is crushing Greece between two brutal realities:
the closure by “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” of its
border with Greece and the imposition of the European Union–Turkey
Agreement (EU–Turkey Agreement) in the Aegean islands. This has blocked
46 000 refugees and migrants in mainland Greece and a further 8 500
on the islands. Greece has been left bearing a grotesquely disproportionate
burden simply because of its place on the map; yet in every other respect
it is perhaps the least well placed of all European Union countries
to bear this responsibility.
2. The Greek asylum system has long suffered from a series of
failings, found by the European Court of Human Rights in 2011 to
give rise to violations of the European Convention on Human Rights
(ETS No. 5). Despite the efforts of the Greek authorities and progress
in some areas, the underlying structural problems remain largely
unresolved today, at a time when the asylum system is being placed
under greater strain than ever and the government is also confronted
with enormous political, administrative and budgetary challenges in
other areas.
3. Much of the responsibility for the current situation falls
to the European Union, which has tacitly supported the closure of
borders along the western Balkans route and concluded the agreement
of 18 March 2016 with Turkey. The European Union has nevertheless
until now failed to provide adequate support to Greece or ensure
that responsibility is shared equitably among its member States.
In particular, European Union member States have collectively failed
to satisfy the requests for seconded staff to ensure that the Greek
asylum system can operate effectively, especially on the Aegean
islands where most asylum seekers are detained, and they have collectively
failed to respond in any meaningful way to the 2015 agreements on
relocation of recognised refugees. While financial support has been
forthcoming, money alone will solve nothing without the administrative
capability and structural capacity in Greece to spend it effectively.
4. The refugee and migrant crisis in the eastern Mediterranean
must be fully accepted as a European and global problem, and not
only a Greek one. The only effective response will be based on respect
for the human rights of refugees and migrants, in accordance with
the fundamental values common to the Council of Europe, the European
Union and their member States, and on genuine solidarity and the
practical sharing of responsibility. Grave doubts exist as to whether
the current situation is sustainable, however, as tens of thousands
of refugees and migrants are still living in camps where conditions
do not meet international standards; the situation on the Aegean
islands has continued to deteriorate since the EU–Turkey Agreement; and
the asylum system on the mainland remains dysfunctional. There are
two essential conditions for the situation in Greece to become sustainable:
the rapid registration and processing of all asylum applications, which
depends primarily on the Greek authorities, with European Union
support; and the prompt fulfilment of States’ relocation obligations,
which depends mainly on other countries. Unless both of these conditions
are met, there is a serious risk of a severe humanitarian crisis
in Greece.
5. The first victims of the situation in Greece are the refugees
and migrants. The Parliamentary Assembly is particularly concerned
by the following aspects:
5.1. on
the Aegean islands, asylum seekers – who have been convicted of
no crime – are detained in the reception centres known as “hotspots”
on dubious legal grounds, in conditions that fall below the standards
expected of prisons, in an administrative limbo with little information
on their situation and complete uncertainty as to their future;
5.2. vulnerable persons, including women and children, are
held in the hotspots alongside angry, frustrated young adults, and
are thus exposed to risks of violence, exploitation and abuse;
5.3. asylum seekers on the Aegean islands are at risk of return
to Turkey under the EU–Turkey Agreement of 18 March 2016, despite
the fact that such returns appear incompatible with European Union
and international law;
5.4. conditions in most of the reception facilities on the
mainland, many of which are entirely unsuited to such use, fall
far below acceptable standards in such basic areas as capacity,
shelter, food, sanitation and medical care. Again, many children
are forced to endure these conditions;
5.5. thousands of others, again including children, live in
informal camps in conditions even more squalid and hazardous than
those in the reception centres;
5.6. refugees and migrants are too often detained, despite
policy reforms, as the authorities still fail to assess and review
the individual necessity and proportionality of detention or to
apply alternatives systematically. In addition, conditions in immigration
detention centres are still far from complying with international
standards;
5.7. the rights and interests of unaccompanied and separated
children are not effectively protected due to problems with the
age-assessment system, the guardianship system, appropriate accommodation
capacity and provision of information. Many unaccompanied and separated
children are detained, purportedly for their own protection, in
degrading conditions in police stations clearly unsuited to the
purpose;
5.8. it is still far from clear whether the recent extensive
reforms of the asylum system will ensure that previously lacking
fundamental procedural guarantees are provided when determining
asylum applications.
6. The Assembly therefore calls on the Greek authorities to:
6.1. ensure that detention conditions
in the hotspots meet international standards, implementing any technical
recommendations that may be made by the European Committee for the
Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
(CPT) in its preliminary observations following its April 2016 visit
to this country;
6.2. apply and regularly review the grounds for detention in
the hotspots, ensuring their strict compliance with the provisions
of the European Convention on Human Rights, and screen all current detainees
and new arrivals to ensure that vulnerable persons are accommodated
in appropriate facilities;
6.3. promptly release those whose continued detention in the
hotspots can no longer be justified and immediately release all
children and their parents or accompanying adults;
6.4. ensure that there is sufficient open reception capacity,
of appropriate type and quality, available for all non-detained
asylum seekers on the islands;
6.5. ensure that the inadmissibility procedure for asylum applications
made by persons arriving from Turkey is applied in strict compliance
with European Union and international law;
6.6. ensure provision on the mainland of sufficient reception
places of appropriate type and quality for all asylum seekers, including
all those currently occupying informal camps, and to make the improvements
to existing facilities that are necessary for them to meet international
standards, in co-operation with the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and relevant non-governmental
organisations, prioritising the needs of vulnerable groups such
as children and women;
6.7. only detain migrants, and especially asylum seekers, when
strictly necessary and proportionate, and ensure that immigration
detention conditions meet international standards, implementing
fully the March 2016 report of the CPT;
6.8. guarantee the rights and interests of unaccompanied and
separated children, including by ensuring that the age-assessment
procedure is properly applied in all contexts, reinforcing the guardianship
system with the creation of a support mechanism for prosecutors,
providing sufficient, appropriate accommodation places, avoiding
all recourse to detention of these children, and providing them
with information and advice on their situation and rights;
6.9. ensure that the reformed asylum system is promptly made
fully operational, that the pre-registration exercise is completed
quickly and effectively, that the backlog of applications and appeals
is rapidly cleared and that new applications are swiftly processed,
in full compliance with European Union standards and those of the
European Convention on Human Rights;
6.10. consistently publish coherent, clear, complete and comprehensible
information on the situation concerning the hotspots, detention,
reception capacity, the asylum procedure and progress made in processing
applications, and the operational capacity and activities of the
asylum service.
7. The Assembly also calls on the European Union, its member
States and States participating in the relocation scheme, as appropriate,
to:
7.1. respond promptly and fully
to the European Asylum Support Office calls for seconded national staff
to support the Greek asylum service;
7.2. allow the Greek authorities to recruit additional staff,
and provide them with sufficient resources to meet the urgent needs;
7.3. implement promptly and fully the September 2015 agreements
on relocation from Greece without unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles
or additional requirements;
7.4. co-operate smoothly with the Greek authorities in giving
effect to family reunification under the Dublin Regulation;
7.5. ensure that financial assistance is efficiently and effectively
made available to those involved in field activities in Greece so
as to permit the implementation of sustainable projects for the
benefit of refugees and migrants, avoiding unnecessary bureaucratic
complications and delay;
7.6. consistently publish coherent, clear, complete and comprehensible
information on the situation concerning the hotspots, including
returns to Turkey, the capacity and activities of staff seconded through
the European Union to support the Greek authorities, the provision
of financial support to the Greek authorities and other relevant
actors in Greece, and the implementation of the relocation agreements;
7.7. be prepared for the possibility of the failure of the
current approach with alternative solutions ready in advance, avoiding
the pattern of unpreparedness and reactive crisis management apparent until
now;
7.8. reconsider the EU–Turkey Agreement in light of the criticism
by the UNHCR, Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International;
7.9. refrain from resuming transfers to Greece under the Dublin
Regulation until the Committee of Ministers has closed its supervision
of the execution by Greece of the judgment in the case of M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece;
7.10. devise a comprehensive and sustainable refugee policy,
based on responsibility sharing and compliance with European Union
standards and those of the European Convention on Human Rights and
the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.