Tell Greece that Asylum Reform Cannot Wait

As someone of Greek heritage who owes my existence to my family's immigration (albeit under less than ideal circumstances) to the United States, I am appalled at the state of Greece's current immigration affairs. I'm not alone, it seems, as both Human Rights Watch and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have recently called upon Greece to immediately begin reforming its impoverished immigration system in order to provide real protection to those seeking refuge on Grecian shores.

So what exactly is going on in Greece? For starters, Greece has a current backlog of over 45,000 asylum cases and a practically nonexistent appeals process for anyone whose case was lucky enough to be heard, only to be summarily rejected. And rejection seems to be the rule of the Greek asylum process. Greece has the lowest asylum-granting rate of  in all of Europe: according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Greece granted a paltry .04% of asylum claims in 2009 — that's about 11 people out of almost 30,000 applicants.

Because there are few public services and asylum seekers are viewed as a societal burden not to be borne, life for an asylum seeker in Greece is nothing short of misery. The migrants are often homeless and crowd the cities' streets waiting for their number to be called, or are holed-up in inhumane off-shore detention centers where they hope beyond all hope not to be sent back to the dangers at home or, worse, across the border to Turkey. HRW has catalogued story after story of asylum-seekers arriving on Grecian shore only to be "dragged across the river" into Turkey, where they were forced into detention, beaten, tortured and often sent home to certain persecution and, in some cases, death.

Under international law, Greece has an obligation to offer just proceedings to those fleeing persecution, and yet there is no Greek asylum system to speak of at all. Despite pleadings from the international community, Greece has now pushed back its plans to revamp its problematic system until what could be as late as 2011.

Because it is situated on the edge of the E.U. and much of its border is coastline, Greece does subsume a great deal of the E.U.'s asylum seekers. Under an E.U. law called "Dublin II," the country of first entry is responsible for assessing an applicant's asylum claim. UNHCR is asking other E.U. countries to put pressure on Greece to reform its asylum policies and urging them not to return asylum applicants to Greece under Dublin II.  Dublin II does put a great deal of  Europe's immigration burden on Greece, according to Human Rights Watch, but there's no excuse for Greece's appalling immigration record. Even considering the particularities of its immigration challenges, it's pretty clear that Greece is not taking its legal or moral responsibilities to the world's refugees very seriously.

Asylum reform in Greece cannot wait. The 45,000 asylum-seekers waiting for their cases to be heard, along with the thousands that have been rejected and have no recourse to appeal, will agree. Help provide these people with a voice and tell Greece: asylum reform must happen now.

Photo Credit: Simon Cocks