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THE COMMON EUROPEAN ASYLUM SYSTEM ADRIFT
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living conditions for the refugees who find
themselves trapped there and stoked xenopho-
bic reactions in overwhelmed Greek host com-
munities.
As winter approached, CEAR and twelve
other organizations called upon the Greek gov-
ernment and the EU to relax their contention
policies in consideration of the rising despera-
tion of refugees now faced with the prospect of
living in lightweight tents without running wa-
ter during this period. A number of specific
cases were brought before the European Court
of Human Rights. It is estimated that 54,000
refugees are currently trapped in various points
of the country.
ACNUR statistics indicate that approximately
30,000 persons sought refuge on Greek islands
during 2017. According to the Greek Minister
for Immigration Policy, greater numbers of asy-
lum seekers have recently been transferred from
the islands on which they landed to Athens and
other points of the mainland to distribute the
burden of reception throughout the country.
People crossing the inland border between
Greece and Turkey along the Evros River are not
subject to the EU-Turkish agreement and there-
fore eligible to request that their applications for
international protection be processed in Greece.
The Greek government’s desire to accelerate
asylum application review and return proce-
dures makes the provision of swift and effective
legal assistance more important than ever.
The Commission has meanwhile adopted a
discourse focusing on the reduction of arrivals
and deaths of refugees along the Aegean coast
and the EU continues to fund refugee reception
facilities in Turkey.
The European Union is therefore clearly con-
tinuing to do everything in its power to prevent
the entry of migrants and refugees into its terri-
tory, in large part by means of agreements with
third countries that fail to uphold even minimal
standards of respect for human rights.
From a legislative perspective, EU appeals to
Member States to demonstrate greater solidar-
ity and process applications for international
protection in a more efficient manner have cen-
tred on measures intended to penalize second-
ary movements and the application of acceler-
ated processes in which safe third country and
safe country of origin issues are taken into ac-
count and international protection status review
processes that ignore the needs of vulnerable
people who deserve international protection –
an approach that undermines refugees’ guaran-
tee of access to the asylum system, the fair and
efficient processing of their applications for pro-
tection and the principle of nonrefoulement.
In conclusion, we would like to underscore
that the right to asylum is but one of a number
of principles being cast aside in the context of a
more general deterioration of human rights that
will lead to an inexorable moral, political and
social decline that will only be avoided by cor-
recting Europe’s present errant orientation.