Migration / Refugees /Asylum / Humanitarian Response

Editor’s Note:
Again this week, we highlight a number of announcements and milestones associated with the global migration/refugee/asylum crises. We observe, unhappily, how many of these developments establish disappointing new precedents, often challenging and apparently compromising long-established principles and practices in IHL.

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REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE UN INFORMATION SERVICE – Geneva: 1 July 2016
[Excerpt; Editor’s text bolding]
…Greece
Mr. Spindler spoke about a large-scale exercise to pre-register asylum seekers on mainland Greece, launched on 8 June by the Greek Asylum Service with UNHCR’s support. So far, more than 15,500 people residing in open temporary accommodation structures had received asylum seeker cards, valid for one year, allowing them to reside legally in Greece and to have the right to access services, pending the full lodging of their asylum application. The exercise would help to identify those eligible for family reunification or relocation to another EU country. It would also identify persons with specific needs so that they may be referred to the appropriate organizations and receive assistance and support.

The pre-registration exercise aimed to address the need to access international protection by an estimated 49,000 people currently on mainland Greece. The process was open to those who had entered Greece between 1 January 2015 and 20 March 2016. The exercise was supported financially by the European Commission (DG Home) and implemented with the help of UNHCR and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). In addition, IOM provided information to asylum seekers about its Assisted Voluntary Return programme.

UNHCR had supported the exercise with technical guidance on the design, planning and preparation, as well as the provision of material resources. UNHCR was also supporting the identification of people with specific needs and facilitated their access to assistance. Among the 15,500 people pre-registered to date, roughly a third of the target population, some 680 unaccompanied and separated children had been identified and referred to EKKA, the specialized government entity in charge of unaccompanied and separated children.

At the end of the exercise, those pre-registered would be given an appointment with the Asylum Service to lodge their asylum claim and access family reunification and relocation. Asylum-seekers would be notified of the date of their appointment by a text message. People with specific needs, including unaccompanied and separated children were being prioritized for appointments.

Following the pre-registration, expanded capacity would be needed to fully register, process asylum claims and follow up family reunification and relocation cases. UNHCR was ready to support the Greek authorities in this regard. Faster implementation and an increased number of places for relocation were needed as more people eligible for relocation were identified. As of 29 June, only 1,970 asylum seekers had been relocated from Greece out of an agreed target of 66,400. Resettlement for those who had family links outside the EU should be also explored.
The exercise was proceeding as planned, with processing capacity now increased to about 700 people per day. The pre-registration was expected to be completed by early-mid August. Pre-registration was ongoing in the Attica and Thessaloniki regions and would move to other parts of Greece in the following weeks.

In response to a question, Mr. Spindler said that that was a special procedure. Usually, people arriving in a country requested asylum in that country and were entered into the asylum system. But in this case, people were arriving in Greece in very large numbers since last summer. Those who arrived more recently were still on the islands and those provisions did not apply to them as they fell under the EU-Turkey agreement. But for those on the mainland, whose movements had been stopped by the closing of the borders, the pre-registration exercise would offer three possibilities: to apply for asylum in Greece, apply for family reunification if they had relatives in other EU countries, or the relocation programme. Voluntary return under the IOM scheme was also possible. UNHCR, together with the Greek asylum system and all partners were trying to find a solution for those people stuck in Greece.

The total of those having arrived in Greece who were still in the country at the moment was 57,000, out of which 49,000 people were on the mainland and the rest were on the islands. Regarding relocation, the agreed goal had been 160,000 thousand places in all countries, not just Greece. The agreement had included 66,400 people to be relocated out of Greece, and 39,600 out of Italy. As of 29 June, 24 countries had made 8,090 places available for asylum seekers to be relocated under the programme. Also as of 29 June, 2,759 asylum-seekers had actually been relocated, including 789 out of Italy and 1,970 out of Greece. The scheme needed to be speeded up. It was important for the EU to support Greece at this moment.

In response to other questions, Mr. Spindler said that it was crucial that more countries came forward with relocation places. The EU’s combined population was over 500 million; it should be possible to find places for those in need, also because not all 57,000 people would apply for asylum. So far, few countries had come forward and those who had, had not offered enough places for relocation. The relocation exercise was a way to share the responsibility of assessing asylum claims, so that Greece didn’t need to deal on its own with this situation, with which it was already overburdened. He also said that it was realistic for Europe to deal with those displaced people as it had dealt with hundreds of thousands or even millions of displaced people in the past.

The asylum seekers could not choose what country to go to but any links they had with a specific country would be taken into account. Most of the asylum seekers had mobile phones and that is why this system of notification about the appointment dates was chosen.

In response to further questions, Mr. Spindler said that the 57,000 he spoke of were the people remaining in Greece, out of over one million people who had arrived in Greece during the recent crisis and had relocated by themselves. UNHCR had been advocating for an orderly relocation programme which would avoid people having to risk their lives and use smugglers. It would have been much more effective for the receiving communities and local authorities to organize the reception of people rather than being overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of arrivals. They would have been spread all over the EU and it would have been a more regular, predictable system. That is why UNHCR had been advocating for this from the very beginning…

Sarah Crowe, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that UNICEF’s ask was that family unity be preserved and that immigration law be broadened, particularly for unaccompanied and separated children, so that if they have family ties anywhere within Europe, not just the EU, this should be taken into consideration. Children were best off in the family unit and needed to be reunified with their families wherever they were and when in children’s best interests.

In response to a question, Mr. Spindler said that countries had been coming forward regularly to offer places, but the number of places was inadequate. Leonard Doyle, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that there had been a large increase in voluntary returns, and according to the latest IOM report there had been 70,000 voluntary returns worldwide in 2015. Greece played a role in that and Mr. Doyle would get back to the press with precise numbers on returns from that country. There had been a relatively large number of assisted voluntary returns facilitated by IOM, from Greece to a variety of countries. There had been assisted voluntary returns to 156 countries of origin worldwide, from 97 different host countries…

Video:
Geneva Press Briefing: HRC, OCHA, IOM, UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM, ITC, WTO
1 Jul 2016 – Biweekly Geneva Press Briefing Chaired by Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva