Brussels - The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) has called on the EU to halt the deportation of asylum seekers to Greece as the Greek authorities in 2007 didn't grant protection to one refugee from Afghanistan or Iraq, the council said Thursday in Brussels. According to ECRE, which represents 63 European refugee- assisting organizations, while Germany, Sweden and Cyprus have accepted over 80 per cent of Iraqi asylum seekers as refugees, Greece's acceptance rate amounts to 0 per cent.
The EU regulation, known as the Dublin system, stipulates that the member country of the first point of entry decides on the fate of asylum seekers within the European Union (EU).
"By requiring that those fleeing persecution must claim asylum in the first EU country they reach, the Dublin system fails to take account of the fact that a person's chance of being recognised as a refugee varies hugely from one EU country to another. Greece is not a safe place for those in need of protection," said Secretary General of ECRE, Bjarte Vandvik.
Norway stopped sending refugees to Greece in February, and according to ECRE, EU states should follow this example.
According to ECRE, the Norwegian authorities' decision arose from "new information about the violation of asylum seekers' rights in Greece."
ECRE also referred to a memorandum of the European Parliament's Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs that admonished Greece for to its inhuman treatment of asylum seekers who were being kept as virtual prisoners.
Last autumn, the German human rights association Pro Asyl presented an investigation documenting the systematic ill-treatment of newly-arrived refugees and Amnesty International has also criticized human rights abuses in Greek asylum procedures, ECRE says.
"Ten years on, the Dublin system still isn't achieving its aim - thus failing refugees and member states. The EU can surely find a better system than the current one which bounces vulnerable refugees around Europe like ping pong balls, with devastating consequences for those unlucky enough to land in countries with lack proper asylum systems," added Vandvik.
