Working for an organisation registered in the “NGO Registry” of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum becomes a punishable offence with the proposed changes to Articles 24 and 25 of the Migration Code.

After five years of constant recommendations from the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the UN to put an end to arbitrary restrictions on the work of civil society organisations supporting refugees and migrants, the Ministry continues to target the organisations deemed inconvenient solely for carrying out their work.

The mere membership of an organisation registered in the NGO Registry elevates misdemeanours such as facilitation of illegal stay, or refusal to hand a travel document, to felonies punishable by up to ten years’ imprisonment and fines of tens of thousands of euros. It is thus considered an aggravating circumstance sufficient to reclassify the offence as a felony, in an affront to fundamental principles of criminal policy and legislation. Mere criminal prosecution suffices for removal of the organisation from the Registry.

These provisions are intended to intimidate civil society. They are introduced only a few months after the Minister of Migration and Asylum made threats against the legal representatives of people who arrived in Crete during the unlawful three-month asylum ban and were protected from deportation by interim measures of the European Court of Human Rights. These attacks were immediately condemned by international and national institutions, yet the competent Minister refuses to retract them.

For the undersigned organisations, this attempt is unjust, unlawful, and unreasonable. We call for the immediate withdrawal of these provisions.

The undersigning organisations:

1. VIOZO - Greek Union of Consumers
2. Doctors of the World - Greek Delegation
3. Médecins Sans Frontières Greece
4. Γυναικεία Ομάδα Αυτοάμυνας
5. Greek Housing Network
6. Greek League for Human Rights
7. Greek Helsinki Monitor
8. Greek Forum of Migrants
9. Greek Forum of Refugees
10. Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
11. Ένωση Μικρομεσαίων Ο.Κοι.Π. Ελλάδας
12. Centre Diotima
13. Μέλισσα Δίκτυο Μεταναστριών στην Ελλάδα
14. Παρατηρητήριο Αστυνομικής Βίας – Copwatch GR
15. ΠΕΚΑμεΑ
16. Symbiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece, Council of Europe Network
17. Σύμπλεξις
18. Σύνδεσμος Αντιρρησιών Συνείδησης
19. Refugee Support Aegean (RSA)
20. ART HUB Athens
21. Boat Refugee Foundation
22. Changemakers Lab
23. Civil Society Alliance Greece
24. Collective Aid
25. Community Peacemaker Teams-Aegean Migrant Solidarity
26. ECHO100PLUS
27. Emfasis Non-Profit
28. EmpowerVan
29. Equal Legal Aid (ELA)
30. Equal Rights Beyond Borders
31. FemArtAct
32. Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid
33. HIAS Greece
34. HIGGS
35. Human Rights Legal Project
36. The HOME Project
37. I Have Rights
38. Inter Alia
39. InterMediaKT
40. Intereuropean Human Aid Association
41. INTERSOS HELLAS
42. Irida Women’s Center
43. iSea
44. Legal Centre Lesvos
45. Mazí Housing
46. Mobile Info Team
47. Nimertis Action Art
48. Northern Lights Aid
49. PRAKSIS
50. Project Armonia
51. Reading to the Others
52. Safe Passage International Greece
53. Samos Volunteers
54. SHE – Society for Help and Empowerment
55. Velos Youth
56. Vouliwatch