A.Ss.I.S.T.’s aim to provide asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection (BIPs) with free accurate current information and a high standard of legal aid services to as many people as request our services was substantially met during this grant period.
The results of A.Ss.I.S.T.’s legal work can be life changing. From January to June 2023, over 500 people received free legal consultations and many more free information and responses to their inquiries that may assist them in their applications for international protection. A.Ss.I.S.T. lawyers led 928 consultations in the service of our clients.
A.Ss.I.S.T. - PROGRESS AND CHALLENGES
There were many challenges as we endeavoured to adapt to more changes made by the Authorities and to our own limitations being short staffed for from end-March to early June 2023.
OUR TEAM
TWO OFFICES, ONE TEAM SERVING CLIENTS THROUGHOUT GREECE.
This quarter saw the departure of two volunteer Legal Advisors(vLAs) and the arrival of three new volunteers in June 2023.
A.Ss.I.S.T. is no longer recruiting volunteer Legal Advisors. Recent experience has shown that the lead time for non-Greek lawyers to be trained and work independently requires a commitment for more than three months and a willingness to undertake other tasks within the Team. A.Ss.I.S.T. is now focussing on recruiting volunteer-interns to fill our Client Services positions: most of whom are Erasmus scholars and all of whom are completing studies in fields directly related to our work. Our revised recruitment approach has already proved its efficacy.
Two new intern-volunteers assumed the Athens and Chios Office & Clients Services Manager roles and have slid seamlessly into the Team with the experienced support of a long-term and hard-working Client Services Manager, who handed over to the new volunteers completing her assignment at the end of June.
A volunteer, with professional experience in the humanitarian sector, also joined the Team as Operations Manager, undertaking a diversity of tasks and assuring the continuation of work initiated by the Team Leader who took three weeks leave commencing end June 2023.
As always A.Ss.I.S.T. relies on our magnificent team of on-call interpreters whose skills covered this quarter 10 languages: Amharic, Arabic, Farsi/Dari, French, Krio, Lingala, Somali, Tigrinya and Urdu. Their language skills together with their cultural and experiential knowledge of our clients proves as always invaluable.
With three Greek lawyers providing legal assistance to our clients, two Client Services Managers and a cohort of on-call interpreters, A.Ss.I.S.T. operates as one Team in two locations serving clients throughout Greece.
For some good news, one of A.Ss.I.S.T.’s long-term interpreters who continues to work remotely with the Team received refugee status in Germany. It is the legal victories and good news received for team members that bolsters team morale and gives cause for some celebration.
LEGAL AID
Over 500 people received free legal aid, and many more legal and practical information to assist them in their understanding of the legal procedure and of practices required in the local context. The results of A.Ss.I.S.T.’s legal work can be life changing through appeals and general support through interview preparations and legal consults on a wide range of both asylum and civil matters.
For example, in the last week of June, A.Ss.I.S.T. learned that one of our lawyers won four appeals (two from families: one from Afghanistan and one from Sierra Leone; two single males: one from Iraq and one from Sierra Leone) and one Subsequent application for a single woman, GBV survivor, from West Africa. Life changing results for 11 people. As previously reported, we do not always learn of the outcome of cases as lawyers are only informed if the client chooses to inform them. The Greek Asylum Service (GAS) now provides decisions directly to applicants only via email, no longer to their lawyers.
While A.Ss.I.S.T. can no longer accurately track the outcome of all appeals submitted by A.Ss.I.S.T. lawyers as decisions are now provided directly to applicants only via email. Not all clients, for a variety of reasons, inform our office of the outcome of their appeals.
Gender-based Violence – Case Study.
A young woman from sub-Saharan Africa, vulnerable and traumatized, alone in Greece is applying for international protection. She is a survivor of female genital mutilation (FGM) and was being forced into an unwanted arranged marriage in her home country. Currently, she is receiving psychological support.
In her home community, the family structure and hierarchy are very strict. The head of the family has complete control and decides for all family members, without any possibility of being challenged. For this applicant, her uncle is head of the family. He is in favor of genital mutilation, is abusive towards the female members of the family in many ways and forces them into unwanted acts. He forced one of the client’s cousins to undergo FGM, a very painful and dangerous operation, from which she died a few days later. Unperturbed by the death of the applicant’s cousin, he arranged for the applicant to marry a powerful businessperson well-known in the area: a fanatical Muslim and an advocate of female ‘circumcision’. The client tried to refuse both the marriage and the mutilation, but to no avail. She was kidnapped and taken to a rudimentary clinic to begin the mutilation operation, which was only partially completed when a family member tried to protect her by helping her leave the hospital and advising her to leave the country. This family member is now in prison for helping her, accused of violating family law. The young woman fled the country as soon as she could and the mutilation procedure was not completed.
Should she have to return to her home country, this applicant will be forced to complete the procedure and to marry an abusive powerful man or she could be abandoned by her family. Either way, she will be exposed her to many forms of coercion and violence.
An A.Ss.I.S.T. lawyer represented this applicant: attended her interview at the Asylum Service and submitted an additional memo in support of her case. Her decision is expected soon.
REFERRALS
The referral system was reviewed and revised by the Client Services volunteers and the in-coming Operations Manager.
In-coming referrals
A.Ss.I.S.T. received 142 client referrals from diverse agencies and NGOs from both other Islands and the mainland.
It was decided to provide Reports on a quarterly basis to all organisations making a significant number of referrals informing on the progress of the cases referred: ‘completed’, ‘on-going’ and ‘pending responses’ from … ‘client’ or ‘authorities.
Out-going referrals
A.Ss.I.S.T. referred 37 clients to other services via referral forms, the majority were for accommodation, medical and psycho-social support. Many other clients were given helpline contacts and service contacts directly.
A client feedback form is being designed to find out from the clients if they received services from the agency to whom they were referred or if they found services elsewhere.
Client Services Feedback
The new mobile friendly client feedback form has resulted in a much higher return rate than our previous form. A.Ss.I.S.T. has received 44 completed forms since mid-April 2023 and a sample of comments is provided below.
“I am very happy with your help, and with the lawyer and with the interpreter. Also, very happy with the reception and everyone I have spoken to from the organization. Thank you so much for your time and for helping me”.
“You people are the best ever”.
“Only thank you and please continue your services in this same spirit.”
“I am personally very satisfied with your assistance, and I would just like to say thank you again.”
Valuable feedback continues to be received verbally through direct contact with clients. Sharing of information between team members, interpreters, lawyers and client service managers contributes to our efforts to improve services and to assure accuracy of information content. The knowledge and experience gained over time within the Team is invaluable to providing sound advice to clients in interview preparations and in arguments in appeal memoranda when countering reasons given in negative decisions.
NETWORKING
A.Ss.I.S.T. continues to participate in the UNHCR Chios Legal Working Group meetings and those of the Legal Aid NGO Network with participants from all over Greece.
During a visit to Athens, an A.Ss.I.S.T. representative met with several non-government organisations in Athens, Emantes, Positive Voice, Safe Place Greece and Refugee Legal Support and with donor representatives and partners.
With the arrival of a volunteer Operations Manager, Molly Pugh-Jones, we had additional capacity to meet and engage with partners. For example, Molly attended an open day visit at Action for Women's Pomegranate Project in Athens. This was an excellent opportunity to see their work in action and meet other colleagues in the sector.
Molly met with valued LGBT+ partners at Positive Voice and Emantes. And as it was ‘Pride Month’ team members attended various events and celebrations.
On World Refugee Day, Molly was also able to visit Victoria Community Centre, where numerous partners host activities ranging from food provision, children's services and employment advice.
Finally, Molly has made new contacts expanding and strengthening our network with other organisations including the Greek Forum of Migrants and developed an up-dated list of referral and network contacts
SOCIAL MEDIA
It is Molly, our volunteer Operations Manager, who was able to reinvigorate our presence on Facebook and Instagram and up-date our website. It is in great part thanks to her work on social media that A.Ss.I.S.T. has received many new volunteer applications. Social media has been especially important for the recruitment of new volunteers, and building our network, with many new followers and increased engagement across all platforms.
TRAINING
Asylum Law – current practice and procedures in Greece (Chios - February & March 2023)
A.Ss.I.S.T. volunteers attended two in-house workshops delivered by A.Ss.I.S.T. Greek lawyers on Greek Asylum law and current procedures and practice.
Legal Assistance and Representation in the Asylum Procedure (On line March 2023)
Two A.Ss.I.S.T. volunteers attended a two-day online workshop arranged by the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA) on “Legal Assistance and Representation in the Asylum Procedure”.
Boat Refugee Foundation – Mental Health and Psychosocial support (Athens - June 2023)
In June, four of our volunteers and one of our partners attended a training session hosted by the Boat Refugee Foundation. The topic of the training was mental health and psychosocial support for asylum seekers and refugees. All of our volunteers thoroughly enjoyed the training, with feedback that it was particularly helpful for both learning how to better engage with vulnerable clients, but also for developing a better understanding of the available referral pathways.
At the end of June, one of our Founders and current Partner, Mary Wenker, visited both Athens and Chios Offices. She attended a MHPSS training with other team members at the Boat for Refugees Foundation (refer Training above) and visited Chios and Athens Offices.
She will work with the Operations Manager to recruit new volunteer/interns for August and beyond.
A.Ss.I.S.T. Q&A Session on Asylum Law and current practice and procedures for other professionals (Athens - June 2023).
CONTEXT UPDATE
Chios: From January 01 to 02 July 2023, 543 people arrived by boat from Turkey to seek international protection and 527 AS/BIPs were transferred or departed to the mainland of their own accord. The number of new arrivals seeking international protection increased in significantly in June 2023 with a total 138 arrivals in the final two weeks of June 2023[1].
Asylum seekers arriving from the mainland are few and are placed in detention and remain unregistered. In Vial Closed Controlled Access Centres (CCAC), the resident population was relatively stable between 300 and 450 residents. On 02 July 2023, there were 377 residents. Many of our clients have been transferred to the mainland and with poor conditions in recent heat wave conditions being a major concern. A.Ss.I.S.T. continues to serve our clients irrespective of their location in Greece.
From January to March 2023, Somali nationals were consistently in the majority with Palestinians, Sierra Leonians and Yemeni the next most populous groups. From April to June, Palestinians were in the majority followed by Somali, Sierra Leonians, and others.
REDUCTION IN SERVICE PROVIDERS INSIDE VIAL CACC IN 2023.
Two NGOs providing services inside the Vial CCAC, Movement on the Ground (MoG) and Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario (Humanitarian Maritime Rescue) (SMH) ceased all their activities inside the facility and departed Chios in January 2023. The former provided recreational and informal education activities while the latter ran a clinic staffed by volunteer doctors, dentists and nurses for many years. The consequent reduction in these services continued to be felt during the following months. The cessation of the SMH operations reduced access to medical and dental care, many essential medicines were not available or difficult to acquire and the provision of arrival and skin-infection packs and potentially the provision of other essential items to asylum seekers ceased for several months. MoG left the CCAC on 11 January and SMH at the end of January 2023.
PROPOSED NEW CACC
It was announced that there will be no new CACC on Chios Island. This may have been a pre-election sweetener for the electorate of Chios. Time will tell.
NATIONAL CONTEXT
NEWS – MARITIME DISASTER AND CONTINUED LOSS OF LIVES
The world’s attention was captured, if only for a moment, by the heavy loss of life on June 9, 2023, when a boat near Greece requiring assistance sank. While mainstream media coverage has ceased, persons and organisations actively engaged in human rights and justice issues more widely continue to follow up on the investigation into this maritime disaster.
It is to be remembered too that the continued loss of life at sea is never far from the minds of those on the Aegean Islands, who hear almost daily from the asylum seekers horrendous accounts of their treatment during failed attempts to reach the Aegean Islands.
ELECTIONS
The national elections were held on Sunday, 21 May 2023. The New Democracy party retained government, winning the right to form government in alliance and not in its own right. A further election was held on the 25th June where the right of the New Democracy Party to form government in its own right was the outcome.
Pending the formal announcement of the Ministers, we received information that there will be a new Minister of Migration, one Mr. Dimitris Kairidis, whose reputation is one of being very hardline.
ASYLUM APPLICATION AND SETTLEMENT PROCEDURES
The procedural changes reported in the A.Ss.I.S.T. July to September Report, specifically the new procedures for Registration appointment via email, continued to be less than responsive, and indeed failed completely for some time.
From 5th May to the present, the Ministry of Migrations (MoM) web-based system “Alkyoni’ has either not been operating at all or with some occasional and ad hoc responses to clients and their lawyers. Operations ceased for a system upgrade and at the end June was still not operating satisfactorily and, in some places, it seemed that it was not operating at all.
The digitisation of so many of the Asylum Services already created additional difficulties for asylum seekers and refugees and was already yet another barrier to the timely progress of applications. Most particularly some of the most vulnerable and those with no internet access or computer skills are affected.
The impact of the Asylum Services’ systems not functioning prevented international protection applications progressing that is increased delays in registration, interviews, notification of appointments, interviews, decisions, etc.). This also resulted in increased delays for recognized refugees in the issuance and renewal of their resident permits, travel documents and other services required to be able to settle into the community. Hence A.Ss.I.S.T. lawyers and Client Services Managers experienced increased difficulties to maintain the full range of services to our clients effectively and to respond to the increase in the number of enquiries and requests received via our two WhatsApp helplines. The relaunch of computer services on 7 June should have enabled resumption of registrations, including medical registrations, asylum application registrations, including of subsequent asylum applications, as well as notification of decisions and residence permits, and other administrative requirements. Regrettably, by end June, there was little improvement of services.
The extended downtime of the MoM data base, hence the lack of digital services, has created further difficulties and delays for asylum seekers and refugees as it compounds the difficulties for those endeavouring to provide support and legal aid.
Without the system up and running,
- Those wishing to make a claim for international protection, cannot seek an appointment to register. Without such an appointment or unregistered, their status remains that of ‘illegal immigrant’ and they are subject to arrest and detention.
Applicants, we have been informed, may present themselves at Malakasa without appointments from end-June into July 2023.
- Interviews have been ad hoc at best or cancelled. Case Operators cannot upload the transcription of interviews to the system. Until this is done, no further progress in the application can be made.
- Those seeking to make a subsequent application cannot seek the appointment required to progress the application.
- Applicants receiving negative decisions have strict deadlines to appeal against the decision.
- Applicants already under appeal deadlines have received mixed reactions from the authorities: some allowed to sign their Appeals, some not.
- There has been a mixed response from different Asylum Services Offices as to the acceptance of late appeals even though delay is due to system failure.
Some Asylum Offices, for example, Vial CCAC on Chios, have continued to do some interviews but with the arrival of Ethiopian applicants this month and no Amharic interpreter available, interviews are being delayed. The same applies to several clients located elsewhere on the mainland.
Thank you for take the time to read this Report. May we look forward to your continued support?
[1] Source: UNHCR Chios Weekly Snapshots.
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