La Strada Documentation Center

Report by Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, following his visit to Greece on 8-10 December 2008

Document number
1948
Date
2009
Title
Report by Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, following his visit to Greece on 8-10 December 2008
Author/publisher
The Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Meeting Documentation/Conference Reports,
Keywords
Migrant rights; Migration management; Comprehensive approach to migration; Migration policy; Restrictive migration measures, Irregular Migration, Feminization of migration, Economic migration, Labour migration, Free movement, Undocumented migrants; Undocumented labour;
Summary
On 4 February, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg presented his report on the human rights situation of asylum seekers in Greece. The findings of this report are based on his visit to Greece in the beginning of December last year. The report gives an overview of the main features of the Greek asylum system, identifies shortcomings and sets concrete recommendations to improve the protection of asylum-seekers' human rights.
In the report the Commissioner underlines that ‘there are grave and systemic deficiencies in the Greek asylum practice that put at risk the fundamental right to seek asylum'. He stresses, among others, the need to improve refugee protection and access to the asylum procedure and calls for the ‘establishment of a coherent and adequately resourced action plan on refugee protection.'
Furthermore he expresses his grave concern over the existing insufficient reception capacity for asylum seekers, including minors. The report concludes that the situation of asylum seekers in Greece is critical. Commissioner Hammarberg calls upon the authorities to ‘urgently improve the asylum system, guaranteeing the full respect of international human rights standards, but at the same time emphasises that ‘the problems in Greece also call for further efforts to coordinate European policies on mixed migration.
Related documents