Elected representatives of the S&D, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups in the European Parliament wrote on Wednesday 25 March to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the Vice-President responsible for promoting the European way of life, Margaritis Schinas, and the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, asking them to investigate the various violations of fundamental rights and European law that they believe are being committed by the Greek government.
In the letter, they say they have witnessed in recent weeks “a serious deterioration of fundamental rights and the rule of law”. “First of all, we have serious concerns regarding the use of COVID-19 epidemic to justify denial of the right to seek international protection at our borders, detention of asylum-seekers and forced returns to situations of danger”.
The groups denounce the one-month suspension of filing asylum applications between 1 and 31 March, adopted on 26 March by the Greek parliament, which will mean that all persons who entered Greece illegally during this period are “automatically” detained, including minors, according to the three parliamentary groups, which call for such persons to be able to file an asylum application.
The three groups also expressed serious concern over “the measures announced by the Greek authorities to prevent COVID-19 in the hotspots, together with the decision to transform several hotspots into closed detention centres”. They are also concerned that Frontex may be engaging in violations of the law in its return operations and border surveillance operations.
The subject was raised on 24 March by the European interior ministers during their teleconference, and the so-called ‘first entry’ countries reported certain difficulties with the asylum system, notably because of health risks. Transfers of asylum seekers to these first entry countries were also seen by some as a potential problem.
According to the Commission, the number of irregular arrivals of migrants did not increase in March.
Link to the letter: https://bit.ly/33O5V1I (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)