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Description
The project will provide expert support to the Greek Asylum Service and provide free legal aid to vulnerable asylum seekers related to first instance asylum procedures. The following two activities shall be supported:
Activity 1: Quality assurance support to the asylum procedures in Greece
The UNHCR and the Greek State have agreed that the UNHCR shall provide support to the Greek asylum system.
Within this framework, the project shall support the UNHCR in providing support to the Asylum Service (AS) for the quality assurance of the procedures at first instance.
- contributing to the conduct of status determination made by the Greek authorities’ assessment of asylum claims,
- developing operational tools to address the challenges of fair and efficient asylum-procedures in accordance with international and European standards,
- ensuring that guidelines and country of origin information are appropriately disseminated and utilized,
- supporting the establishment of a quality assurance institutional framework within the Asylum Service (AS),
- contributing to the elaboration of Guidance issued by the Quality Department of the AS on complex refugee status determination issues, as well as on examination of claims of specific nationalities
In addition to the above activities, the UNHCR shall undertake the monitoring of second instance asylum procedures.
Activity 2: Legal aid support to asylum seekers in Greece
Furthermore, the project will provide for free legal aid to asylum seekers. UNHCR will focus on asylum seekers in detention, urban areas as well as on islands. The scope of the free legal aid supported by UNHCR shall include:
- legal counseling and representation within the asylum procedures
- challenging administrative acts concerning detention or deportation/return
- challenging administrative acts related to treatment of vulnerability (SGBV, UASC etc.)
- the further administrative treatment of asylum seekers
Summary of project results
In total for 2018, UNHCR Quality Assurance team supported the AS by helping upon request caseworkers with on-the-job training and advice on drafting decisions and conducting interviews in many instances representing 36% of total decisions issued by the AS to note that there was a large increase in the number of decisions on the merits issued by the AS in 2018).
Against the drastically changed background since 2015, which led to a 5 times increase of the number of asylum applications in only one year (from 2015 to 2016), and as the acceleration of the asylum process in Greece is a highly pressing requirement that may negatively affect quality, quality assurance support is more needed in order to maintain fairness of the asylum procedures while working on acceleration and efficiency. As the capacity of the Greek asylum system will need to remain high and further increase (only 47 out of the 200 new staff were recruited in 2018 and the rest 140 are expected in 2019), the quality assurance support is expected to be a needed and worthy investment. UNHCR also prioritizes this component of work which is at the core of its competence and expertise and in line with its institutional role. Lastly, and within the broader context of UNHCR’s institutional role on quality assurance which also covers second instance procedures, UNHCR is considering enhancing its monitoring/observatory role also at the appeal stage of the asylum procedure in Greece, which is currently criticized for long delays in the processes and the creation of significant backlogs, in particular, against the necessity to implement the arrangements under the EU-Turkey Statement. At the appeal stage, given the setting of the Independent Appeals Committees (IACs) in which judges participate, UNHCR will exercise its quality assurance work as an external actor and not through embedded staff, through (1) the review of appeal decisions which are by law notified to UNHCR, (2) monitoring of the procedures including through the team of designated members by UNHCR in the IACs, (3) advocacy work through communication of findings to the authorities, including legal commentaries to related laws and regulatory framework of the procedures before the IACs, (4) organization of training seminars in coordination with other involved Organizations, e.g. EASO and IARLJ, for the IACs’ members.
Activity 1: Quality assurance support to the asylum procedures in Greece
UNHCRs quality assurance team numbered 18 Associate Asylum Experts (AAEs) deployed all over Greece, 1 Associate Protection Expert (Appeals), 1 Legal Advisor, 1 Associate Asylum Expert (Legal), 2 Documentation Experts.
AAEs deployed to Attica, Thessaloniki, Alexandroupoli, Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes and Kos pursued three main duties: a) individual consultations with caseworkers, b) observation and support (feedback) during the conduct of asylum interviews, and c) review of decisions issued at first Instance, while they also intensively engage in caseworker training/refresher sessions.
A parallel continuous focus was to enhance UNHCR¶s support to the central Quality, Training and Documentation Department, in order for it to continue to build its own Tools and mechanisms to promote and control Quality across its operations, as well as to develop a strong and coordinated network of local quality focal points, able to disseminate and safeguard quality standards and guidance set centrally by the AS.
At the same time, the work conducted so far on quality jointly by the AS and UNHCR, has led to an important achievement, that of the AS gradually evolving its own capacity in order to own the staff conducting quality assurance locally, through the aforementioned Quality.
Activity 2: Legal aid support to asylum seekers in Greece
As there were significant gaps in the provision of legal assistance at 1st instance of the asylum procedures, as well as regarding the further administrative treatment and access to rights of asylum-seekers, UNHCR continued to provide legal aid beyond the minimum standards of the Common European Asylum System, as a key priority protection area that UNHCR is supporting for many years aiming at contributing to fairer and more efficient asylum procedures.
The scope of the free legal aid supported by UNHCR included legal counseling and representation within the asylum procedures, challenging of administrative acts concerning detention or deportatio n/return or of acts related to treatment of vulnerability (SGBV, UASC etc.) as well as regarding the further administrative treatment of asylum seekers and has acted in complementarity with other programmes of legal aid, in particular with the state-run legal aid scheme for provision of legal assistance at 2nd instance.
UNHCR under this project managed to continue the provision of its services towards two main areas: i) quality assurance support at the asylum procedures in Greece contributing to the conduct of status determination procedures in accordance with international and European standards, at developing operational tools to address the challenges of fair and efficient asylum-procedures, at ensuring that guidelines and country of origin information are appropriately disseminated and utilized, as well as at supporting the establishment of a quality assurance institutional framework within the AS; and ii) provision of free legal aid to asylum seekers focusing on asylum seekers in detention, urban areas as well as on islands as well as to a limited number of beneficiaries of international protection, such as recognized refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection.