With a new Joint Ministerial Decision (JMD) issued on 7 June, the Greek State designates Turkey as a “safe third country” for families, men, women and children of five nationalities seeking international protection in Greece. It is noted that the JMD applies even to those from countries with high recognition rates for international protection, such as Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. This decision reinforces the policy established by the March 2016 EU-Turkey Statement that shifts the responsibility to protect refugees, including unaccompanied children, arriving in Europe to third countries.

For years, the effect of this externalisation policy has been to turn the Greek islands into a place of confinement for thousands of displaced and persecuted people, as authorities prioritised “containing” them on the islands to facilitate their return to third countries. This created places like Moria that became shameful symbols of Europe’s failure to protect refugees. But the solution is not to send displaced individuals to Turkey. In Turkey, people seeking asylum from non-European countries are not granted international protection per the 1951 Refugee Convention, while in March 2021 Turkey announced it would withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, and will thus not be protecting victims of gender-based violence, who are at an increased risk in case of return from Greece, based on the new JMD. People should not be returned to a country where their lives would be in danger, but multiple reports over recent years warn of the refoulement of refugees from Turkey, even to war zones in Syria. Furthermore, the concept of a “safe third country” presupposes the existence of an essential connection between the asylum seeker and that country, as well as the consent of the third country to receive the returnee. These conditions are not met in the case of Turkey.

The decision to designate Turkey as a “safe third country”, should be revoked for the aforementioned reasons. Furthermore, the unworkability of this new law is highlighted, since as far back as March 2020, Turkey is not accepting the return of refugees and asylum seekers from Greece. This has been pointed out by Greece’s Ministry of Migration and Asylum as well as the European Commission. Refugees whose applications have been rejected as inadmissible according to the “safe third country” principle, are already enduring a situation of protracted legal uncertainty, social exclusion, destitution, homelessness, and even prolonged detention in Greece, which is at risk of turning into a prison. This JMD will serve only to increase the number of people in such a situation.

In fact, as has been pointed out in relevant interventions by the Greek Ombudsperson, and more recently in a reply by the Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission, in these cases applicants must be able to re-apply for asylum, and have their applications examined on their merits, in accordance with EU and national law.

In line with a recent announcement by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), our organisations stress that “externalization simply shifts asylum responsibilities elsewhere and evades international obligations”. We once again call on the Greek and European authorities to honour their responsibility to protect refugees and to avoid further undermining the European asylum acquis and the fundamental principles and values for protecting human rights. To this end, we call on Greece to revoke the JMD issued on 7 June.

Signatories

Action for education

ΑRSIS – Association for the Social Support of Youth

Better Days

Centre Diotima

ECHO100PLUS

ELIX

Equal Rights Beyond Borders

Europe Must Act

European Lawyers in Lesvos (ELIL)

Fenix – Humanitarian Legal Aid

Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)

Greek Forum of Migrants

Greek Forum of Refugees (GFR)

Greek Helsinki Monitor

Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR)

HumanRights360

Human Rights Legal Project

Initiative for the Detainees’ Rights

International Rescue Committee (IRC)

INTERSOS

INTERSOS Hellas

Irida Women’s Center

Legal Centre Lesvos

Lesvos Solidarity

Lighthouse Relief

Médecins du Monde – Greece

METAdrasi- Action for Migration and Development

Mobile Info Team (MIT)

Network for Children’s Rights

Network for the Social Support of Refugees and Migrants

Odyssea

Refugees International

Refugee Law Clinic Berlin

Refugee Legal Support (RLS)

Refugee Rights Europe (RRE)

Refugee Support Aegean (RSA)

Samos Volunteers

SolidarityNow

Still I Rise

Terre des hommes Hellas