Have you arrived by sea on the Greek islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos or Leros?
When you arrive in Greece by sea, police will take you to one of the Closed Controlled Access Centers that exist in the islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Leros to be subject to Reception and Identification Procedures.
If you arrived on the Greek Islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Leros or Kos on or after March 20, 2016, and you applied for asylum, you will be subject to the fast-track Border Procedure. This is because of a joint statement known as the EU-Turkey Statement and the amended Greek legislation on international protection to facilitate its implementation.
Main characteristics of the fast-track border procedure
(a) The registration of asylum applications, the notification of decisions and other procedural documents, and the receipt of appeals may be conducted by staff of the Hellenic Police or the Armed Forces.
(b) The asylum seeker interview may also be conducted by Greek language personnel deployed by EUAA (European Union Agency for Asylum). According to the law, “in particularly urgent circumstances”, the interview can also be conducted by trained personnel of the Hellenic Police or the Armed Forces.
(c) The asylum procedure shall be concluded in a short time period. More specifically, it should take no more than 28 days, and it is thus characterized by very short deadlines in every step of the procedure.
More specifically, the deadlines set are the following:
- the Asylum Service shall issue a first instance decision within seven days.
- the deadline for submitting an appeal against a negative decision is ten days.
- the examination of an appeal shall be carried out within four days. The appellant is notified within one day to appear for a hearing before the Appeals’ Committees or to submit supplementary evidence.
- the second instance decision shall be issued within seven days.
(d) the lodging of the appeal does not always have an automatic suspensive result. This means that in some cases you need to submit a separate application before the Appeals Committee within the deadline for the submission of the appeal, requesting to allow your stay in Greece until the second-instance decision is issued.
(e) if you arrive on the islands, you will, as a rule, be imposed with a geographical restriction which obliges you to remain on the island where you have arrived. In practice, the geographical restriction will remain active until it is lifted by the Reception and Identification Service (RIS). For more information, click here.
EXEMPTIONS from the border procedure on the islands
According to the newest applicable law, unaccompanied minors under the age of 15 and minors who are victims of human trafficking, torture, rape, or other serious forms of psychological, physical or sexual violence shall be exempted from the border procedure. However, if certain conditions apply, such as their country of origin is designated as safe (Ghana, Senegal, Togo, Gambia, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Albania, Georgia, Ukraine, India and Armenia) or if they have submitted a subsequent asylum application, their application might also be examined according to the border procedure.
Other vulnerable persons in need of unique procedural guarantees (direct relatives of those killed in shipwrecks (parents, siblings, children, and spouses), people with disabilities, elderly people, pregnant women, single-parent families with children under 18, victims of human trafficking (people who have been forced into labour or sexually exploited), people with serious illness, people with mental and psychiatric disabilities, victims of torture, rape, or other severe forms of psychological, physical, or sexual violence, such as survivors of genital mutilation (FGM), even when identified are not exempted from the fast track border procedure, unless it is proven that no adequate support can be provided to them on the island. In these cases, the geographical restriction imposed by RIS is lifted, and they are transferred or allowed to move to the mainland.
Interviews
When the Greek Asylum Service officially registers your asylum request, you will have a personal interview. Either staff of the Greek Asylum Service, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) or, in particularly urgent cases, the Police or the Army will conduct this interview. EUAA supports the Greek Asylum Service and can only issue an opinion on your case, not a final decision.
Depending on the country you entered Greece from and your nationality, you might have to go through two separate interviews or a merged one. Specifically, if you entered Greece from Turkey and your country of origin is Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Somalia or Syria, the Asylum Service will first try to establish whether Greece is responsible for examining your application (admissibility interview) or if you will be readmitted to Turkey. If the authorities consider that Turkey is not a safe country for you, they will assess your personal story and whether you should be granted international protection status (eligibility interview).
Admissibility interview
When the authorities are examining whether Turkey is a safe country for you to return to, you will be asked:
- about the duration of your stay in Turkey
- if you have applied for asylum in Turkey and if not why
- if you have family, friends or any supporting network in Turkey
- if you speak Turkish
- if you had access to work, housing, education and healthcare
- any violent or traumatizing incidents that have occurred during your journey and stay in Turkey, which put your life in danger while residing there and could cause such danger again if you returned there. Make sure to provide as many details as possible regarding such incidents to assist in the assessment of whether Turkey could be considered safe for you to live there or not. If you have any arguments that Turkey is not a safe country for you, it is important to describe them in detail at this point.
What's next?
If the authorities find your claim inadmissible, you have ten days to appeal after the decision is notified.
APPEALING YOUR ASYLUM DECISION IN GREECE-FIRST-INSTANCE APPEALS
If the authorities find your claim is admissible, you will have an eligibility second interview about the reasons you fled from your country of origin and those for which you are afraid to go back to it.
Eligibility interview
If you do not have an admissibility interview, or if you have one and authorities find your asylum claim should be examined in Greece, you will have an "eligibility interview." This is the main asylum interview, and it will decide if you can get asylum in Greece.
During this interview, authorities will ask what happened to you back in your country that forced you to leave and why you are afraid of returning. They will then decide if you are eligible for asylum in Greece.
Learn more about asylum interviews in Greece: INTERVIEW
After your eligibility interview, you must appeal within ten days if you get a negative response. If you do not have legal representation, you can apply for free state legal aid from the Lawyer's Registry of the Asylum Service here.
Learn more about appealing your decision: APPEALING YOUR ASYLUM DECISION IN GREECE-FIRST-INSTANCE APPEALS.
If you get a positive response, congratulations - you can learn more about your asylum status in Greece here: