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The return of those seeking asylum back to Greece by the rest of the European countries members of the Dublin Treaty has to be stopped right now, signalized the report “The Dublin trap 2 – a return to the people seeking asylum back in Greece” by Amnesty International, which was presented today in Athens. In the 2009 report Amnesty International points out that the rights of the people who are sent back to Greece are neglected and one of the risks is that the country will send them back to where they probably will be pursued.

The report points out the incapability of the Greek authorities to provide a fair procedure for receiving an asylum. Part of the disadvantages of the system are the lack of access to the procedure for application for an asylum, access to fair hearing of the application for asylum, lack of legal consultations, interpreters and information, and the conditions for detention are usually very bad. There are also data about forced extraditions in Turkey. Besides this the lack of buildings for sheltering the people seeking asylum and the access to medical care are in violation of the simple economic and social rights of the those seeking asylum, said the director of the Greek office of Amnesty International Georgia Tritsbioni.

Since the month of April 2008 the Supreme Commissariat of the UN for the refugees (UNHCR) advises the rest of the countries members of the EU to stop sending the people who are seeking for asylum back to Greece because of the serious lapses in the procedure for application for asylum in the country. According to a study of Amnesty International held between September 2008 and February 200 the situation has deteriorated, however in spite of the information for serious violations of the human rights in the first ten months of 2009 by countries like Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands and Finland in Greece have been sent back 995 people seeking asylum. In the research of Amnesty International have been taken interviews from 90 people from Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, who were sent back from England, Netherlands, Belgium and other countries, tells the researcher Victoria Bandi.

In spite of the fact that the political climate in Greece is now better than it was in the previous years – there is a desire on the part of the government to take actions, the general public feelings are much tenser and we became witnesses of cases of extreme racist manifestations. Because of this the request of the European countries to stop sending back in Greece the people looking for asylum is more live then ever, said the director of the Greek branch of the Supreme Commissariat of the UN for the refugees Georgios Tsarbopoulos.

According to the existing statistics the percentage of approved applications for receiving a refugee status becomes smaller and smaller in the past few years. The traveling of immigrants from Asia and the east towards Europe starts usually from Greece after they have passed before this through Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. In Greece the percentage of the people seeking asylum, who receive a refugee status is the smallest – in 2001 it was 0,2% according to Eurosatat.