Release but risk of deportation remains

The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has received new information in the following situation in Greece.

New information

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM), a member of the SOS-Torture Network, that the 36 Iraqis refugees, who had remained in detention, were released upon completion of the three-month maximum detention period on 27 May 2007.

All 43 Iraqis are now currently awaiting date of interview for their appeal against the rejection of their asylum application.

Finally, according to the information received, no investigation has yet been launched into the beatings suffered by seven of the Iraqis by a group of police officers on 31 March 2007.

Although the International Secretariat of the OMCT welcomes the release of the 36 Iraqis refugees, it remains very concerned as to the status of the asylum applications of the 43 Iraqis and calls on the Greek authorities to ensure that their appeal against the rejection of their asylum application is reviewed each one separately and individually in strict implementation with the February 2007 Revised UNHCR special directives on Iraqi refugees[1] and with the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. OMCT is particularly concerned in light of latest reports of Iraqis deportation/refoulement waves without due consideration of their case, mainly since the readmission protocol between Greece and Turkey, which enables both sides to redirect illegal migrants to the country from which they crossed the border[2], was recently reapplied.

Furthermore, OMCT also calls on the Greek authorities to order a thorough and impartial investigation into the allegations of ill-treatment as impunity should not prevail. Finally, OMCT is very much concerned that according to the information, no improvement in the detention’s conditions in the Thessaloniki Transfer Center and in the Alien’s Division of the Thessaloniki Police were undertaken, conditions of detention that amount to inhuman and degrading treatment.

Brief description of the situation

According to the information received, on 22 February 2007, 54 Iraqis refugees and asylum seekers were arrested and detained on the basis of illegal entry in the Greek Island of Chios. A few days later 13 of them belonging to families with small children were released and ordered to leave the country. The remaining 39 men and 2 women were kept in detention. In the meantime, on 18 January 2007, two other Iraqis refugees were arrested and detained initially on Samos Island.

According to the information, the 41 Iraqis intended to file asylum applications. For the first time though, on 29 March 2007, the police authorities gave them orders to leave the country but did not release them. Instead they escorted them via Athens the Thessaloniki Transfer Center so as to deport them to Turkey in application of a bilateral protocol of re-admission. The two Iraqis from Samos had been transferred a few days earlier, on 31 March and 1 April 2007 respectively, at that Transfer Center. Upon their arrival in Thessaloniki, on 30 March 2007, the Iraqis said that they wanted to file asylum applications, but they were denied that right. A legal support team managed to see three of them and was reportedly informed that all wanted to file applications as they had left Iraq fleeing persecution for various religious, ethnic or political reasons. The lawyers reportedly informed the police in writing in the evening of 30 March 2007 and an oral assurance was allegedly given that all those wishing to file applications will be allowed to do this.

However, according to the information, at 7 am on 31 March 2007, the Iraqis were told to pack and board a bus that would leave at 8 am to take them the Greek-Turkish border. Seven of them who protested and refused to board the bus, insisting to file asylum applications, reported to have been beaten by a group of police officers. Upon being informed about these developments, the lawyers in Thessaloniki and related NGOs in Thessaloniki, Chios and Athens reportedly protested to various competent police authorities, who subsequently stopped the deportation.

According to the information, police authorities then took the 41 applications, plus the applications of the two Iraqis who were arrested on Samos Island and transferred them to the Thessaloniki Transfer Center. However, no interpreters were reportedly provided during the process and the “interviews” were conducted in English which only one of them could understand but not speak fluently and had to translate back and forth to the other detainees. Moreover, no doctors reportedly examined those who reported having been beaten.

According to the information, on 10 April 2007 the Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Order signed rejection decisions of all asylum applications. The decisions were communicated on 11 April 2007 and the applicants had a 30-day deadline to appeal.

In the meantime, the volunteer lawyers reportedly filed objections to the detention of the Iraqis before the Administrative Court of Thessaloniki. Five of them were consequently released. The two Iraqis arrested on Samos Island were released as the three-month maximum detention period had elapsed. The 36 remaining individuals were not granted release and remained detained in the Alien's Division of the Thessaloniki Police, allegedly in very bad conditions as the Division's detention facilities are constructed for short term detention and for a much smaller number of detainees. The Iraqis had reportedly to sleep on mattresses on the floor in overcrowded cells; there were no possibility to walk outdoors even for a short period.

Action requested

Please write to the authorities in Greece urging them to:

1. Take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of all the 43 Iraqis refugees and asylum seekers;
2. Take all necessary measures to guarantee that their asylum application is reviewed each one separately and individually in strict implementation with the Revised UNHCHR Directives and with the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees;
3. Order a thorough and impartial investigation into the allegations of ill-treatment, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them to trial and apply the civil penal and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
4. Guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards.

Addresses

• Mr. Kostas Karamanlis, Prime Minister, Prime Minister’s Office at the Hellenic Parliament, Greek Parliament Blgd, Constitution Square, Athens / Greece, Fax: +30 210 3238129 , Email: Mail@primeminister.gr
• Ms. Ntora Bakogiani, Foreign Minister, Athens, Greece, Fax: 30 210 36 81 433, Email: gpap@mfa.gr
• Mr. Anastasios Papaligouras, Minister of Justice, Athens, Greece, Fax +30 2107489231
• Mr. Byron Polidoras, Minister of Public Order, Athens, Greece, Fax: + 30 210 6917944
• Mr. Giorgos Kaminis, Ombudsman for Human Rights, Fax 30 210 7289643
• Mr. Athanassio Dimoschakis, Chief of Greek Police, Fax: +30-2106923689
• H.E. Franciscos Verros, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of Greece to the United Nations in Geneva, Rue du Léman 4, 1201 Geneva, Switzerland, Email: mission.greece@ties.itu.int, Fax: +41 22 732.21.50

Please also write to the embassies of Greece in your respective country.

Geneva, 10 August 2007

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

[1] calling for granting refugee status or subsidiary protection (depending on the region they come from) to Iraqis asylum seekers in view of the prevailing situation in Iraq.

[2] For further information, see joint press release «Refoulement of Iraqi citizens fleeing to Greece – Common statement by 16 NGOs » issued on 1st August 2007 available on http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/index.php?sec=194&cid=3167