News from the field

June 2025

Two years on from the shipwreck off Pylos

On Thursday 19 June 2025, a Press Conference was held Press Conference at the Athens Bar Association marking the second anniversary of the Pylos crime,the deadliest shipwreck recorded in the Mediterranean in recent years. Lawyers from organisations representing the survivors and the families of the victims of the shipwreck, who have filed lawsuits with the Piraeus Naval Court, participated. They highlighted recent crucial developments in the criminal proceedings, which constitute a first, substantial step towards justice and accountability.More specifically, an update was provided on the recentcriminal prosecution for feloniesagainst 17 members of the Hellenic Coast Guard, including senior officers of its leadership. The charges include, among others, causing a shipwreck, dangerous interference of maritime transport resulting in fatalities, as well as failure to provide assistance and exposing others to danger. Additionally, information was provided regarding the filing of an appeal against the Prosecutor’s Order that archived the case concerning four other officers.The survivors and relatives of the victims of the Pylos shipwreck demand justice, and it will not be long before it is delivered. We must not allow the Mediterranean and the Aegean to become a watery grave for souls and consciences.”noted by Vassilis Papadopoulos, GCR’s President.

"‘Accountability and respect for the memory of the victims’is what the UNHCR and the IOM are calling for in a joint statement two years after the Pylos shipwreck, της Πύλου, emphasising the need "‘the judicial process to be completed in a timely manner and to ensure that those responsible are held accountable.’”.

Watch the video from the press conference here.

Ministry of Migration and Asylum’s persistence on Turkey’s characterisation as a “Safe Third Country” for refugees returns to the Council of State

The Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) and Refugee Support Aegean(RSA)against thenewjoint ministerial decision (JMD) that designates Turkey as a“safe third country”for asylum seekers originating from Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This action follows the annulment of the previous JMD, identical in content, by the Plenary Session of the Council of State with its Decision No. 1048/2025.

Refugee families reunited after years apart with legal assistance from the Greek Council for Refugees

On 19 June 2025, an 11-year-old child arrived at Eleftherios Venizelos Airport and was reunited with his mother and little sister after years of waiting. The mother was forced to leave her country in 2019 due to persecution. She arrived in Greece the same year and was recognised as a refugee in 2022. Immediately after her recognition, she submitted an application for family reunification to bring her minor son to live with her. After many years of persistent legal interventions by the lawyers of the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR), from the certification of the necessary family reunification documents, the interview before the Asylum Service, to the issuance of the child's entry visa, the family is now reunited. GCR has successfully supported numerous of such cases, providing legal assistance to recognised refugees under a specialised family reunification programme of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Recent cuts to the UN budget, due to the reduction or suspension of funding from the US, threaten the GCR's ability to provide legal assistance in family reunification procedures.

Joint Statement by 31 Civil Society Organisations: The Ministry of Migration and Asylum must rescind the eviction order of people on the move from camps

In a joint statement, 31 civil society organisations are calling on the Ministry of Migration to revoke the order to the authorities of refugeee camps across Greece to evict beneficiaries of international protection and rejected asylum seekers from their their facilities. As they emphasise,“As a consequence, evictions from state-run facilities could place people into situations carrying tangible risks to the protection of their fundamental rights. For children whose stay in camps enables them to attend school, eviction risks interrupting their education,as well as placing working adults into a situation where it may be impossible to maintain their employment. For persons in vulnerable situations - women, children and persons with disabilities or health conditions - their eviction from camps may expose them to severe forms of harm. These include retraumatisation, exploitation, human trafficking and police violence, raising the risk of inhuman and degrading treatment and infringing on the best interests of the child, where relevant, in contravention of both EU and international law.”» – Read the full statement here.

Intervention by the Ombudsman to the authorities ‘to support the integration of recognised refugees’για την υποστήριξη της ένταξης των αναγνωρισμένων προσφύγων»

At the end of June, following a report by the GCR on a vulnerable family of recognised refugees with minor children at risk of removal from the reception facility, the Greek Ombudsman intervened with the competent authorities, recalling his previous recommendations and calling on the competent authorities to take measures ""to support the integration of recognised refugees in general and to make specific provision to prevent them from becoming homeless and exposed to conditions that violate their fundamental rights and cause them further trauma, and that this is even more important when it comes to kids or vulnerable people in general."”.

As the Independent Authority points out, "[...] The Ombudsman has repeatedly stated that the management of the refugee issue requires a coherent integration strategy. The suspension by law of material reception conditions for recognised refugees from accommodation facilities, which was introduced to deal with the mass arrivals of applicants and the emergency needs arising during reception, highlights the risk of homelessness and economic hardship for this vulnerable population […] It is therefore crucial that long-term measures be put in place to ensure the smooth integration of beneficiaries of international protection into society. The transition to functional and adequate integration programmes should be facilitated without hindrance and within a short period of time in order to achieve the smooth autonomy of persons […]».

ECtHR- Greece condemned anew for 39 unaccompanied children

On Thursday, 19 June 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued two new judgements which condemned Greece for repeated violations of the rights of 39 unaccompanied children. With these two new (M.Y. and others v. Greece, application no. 51980/19 and 5 other cases and and A.I. and others v. Greece, application no. 11588/20 and two other cases), the Court jointly examined 6 and 3 applications respectively, which had been submitted concerning the cases of a total of 39 minors, condemning Greece for violations of Articles 3 and 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Court found violations by the Greek authorities in respect of all unaccompanied children due to the failure to provide them with reception conditions and/or detention/protective custody in police detention centres, PROKEKA Amygdaleza and RIC Malakasa, for prolonged periods of time and/or the absence of an effective remedy to challenge their detention.

As highlighted by the Greek Council for Refugees, Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) and Equal Rights Beyond Borders, organisations that, among other things, represented unaccompanied children before the Court: “The so-called“protective custody"of unaccompanied children was abolished in December 2020 (Law 4760/2020, Article 43), following systematic interventions by civil society organisations and as a result of a series of cases brought before the ECtHR, including the above-mentioned cases, in most of which the Court had additionally granted interim measures for the protection of minors. However, the two recent judgments of the Court, as well as its judgments in the landmark cases of Rahimi v. Greece and M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece, to which the Court refers consistently and on which it bases subsequent judgments, remain particularly relevant and serve as a reminder of the Greek authorities’ obligations vis-a-vis unaccompanied children. This is particularly evident today, amidst a return to a situation where unaccompanied children face informal and de facto restriction of their freedom in the Closed Controlled Access Centers (CCACs) on the islands and in Reception and Identification Centres (RICs) in the mainland, once again in totally inappropriate conditions and with significant delays in appointing guardians and granting them access to asylum.””.

At the same time, a new report by Save the Children, to which the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) contributedby conducting interviews with refugee and migrant children in Greece, documents systematic violations faced by children arriving in Europe in search of protection.As highlighted, ‘there is a real and present risk that a generation of refugee and migrant children will be further deprived of their rights when the EU Pact comes into force’ -» – Full report

ECtHR: The Court rejects the Greek Government’s request for a review of the pushback case A.R.E v. Greece cases, , the Judgment in A.R.E. v. Greece

On^1st of July 2025the European Court of Human Rights(ECtHR) rejected the Greek Government's request to refer to the Court's Grand Chamber the first case examined by the Court in relation to a complaint of pushback of an asylum seeker from Turkey in Evros by the Greek authorities.

We recall that on 7 January 2025, he ECtHR with its landmark Judgment A.R.E. v. Greece (no.15783/21) condemned Greece for the first time in a pushback case,, which was supported before the Court by lawyers of the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR).

Following the rejection by the ECtHR of the Greek Government's request for the case to be reviewed by the Court's Grand Chamber, the Judgment in A.R.E. v. Greece (no. 15783/21) becomes final.

We note that since the publication of the A.R.E. decision, on 7-1-2025, until today,, GCR has submitted to the ECtHR 14 requests for interim measures (R 39), which were all granted, for 55 asylum seekers (including families with children), of which: 20 are Turkish asylum seekers and 35 asylum seekers from other nationalities (Syrian, Afghan, Iraqi, Iranian, stateless). In 2 of these cases, the applicants from Turkey were lawfully arrested and subjected to the legal procedure by the Greek authorities; in 2 cases, concerning 2 Turkish asylum seekers, the applicants complain that they were subjected to pushback by the Greek authorities and after re-entering Greece they were lawfully arrested; in another 7 cases, concerning 41 asylum seekers (including children), we were informed that all of them were pushed back to Turkey; and in 3 cases, concerning 8 Afghan applicants ( families with young children) and 2 Turkish applicants, we received no information on their whereabouts.