Greek police “forgot” to process asylum claims

Greek police “forgot” to process the asylum claims of 13 of the 202 asylum seekers sent back to Turkey on Monday, the first day the deal was put into practice, according to Vincent Cochetel, director of UNHCR’s Europe bureau.

On Tuesday, EU officials repeatedly avoided saying whether they will investigate the allegation, which threatens the legitimacy of the deportation deal.

If proved, the claims would undermine the EU’s argument that the deal, which could lead to the expulsion of almost all asylum seekers who arrived in Greece after 20 March, is in line with international law. The EU has previously promised that people “who apply for asylum in Greece will have their applications treated on a case by case basis”, and that “there will be no blanket and no automatic returns of asylum seekers”.

Cochetel said on Tuesday that 13 Afghans and Congolese asylum seekers who reached the Greek island of Chios after 20 March, and who were deported back to Turkey on Monday, had not been allowed to formally register their asylum claims due to administrative chaos on the island.

Afghans are escaping Islamist extremism and a decades-old civil war, while the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been hit by a longrunning insurgency.

Cochetel told the Guardian: “For four days after the 20th, the Greek police did not register any intention to seek asylum as they were not prepared [or] equipped for this, so we started providing forms to people who had declared their intention to seek asylum.

“The police received most of the people with these forms and … forgot some apparently. It is more a mistake than anything else, we hope.”

Asked to comment on the allegations, Chios police denied that anyone had been returned to Turkey against their will. “All of the 66 people we sent yesterday did not want to stay in Greece,” said an official at Chios police headquarters, who did not give his name.

The EU commission’s chief spokesman, Margaritis Schinas, tried to laugh off the allegation, on the grounds that UNHCR had earlier said it had been given access to the deportees. Later on Tuesday, a second EU official repeatedly refused to say whether the EU would investigate the claims.

source: The Guardian