Country briefing: Statelessness and refugees in Greece WHY IS STATELESSNESS RELEVANT TO THE FORCED DISPLACEMENT DEBATE IN EUROPE? Statelessness is a hidden problem affecting many refugees arriving in Europe. According to Eurostat, of the four million people who applied for asylum in the EU in 2015-2018, more than 115,000 were recorded as ‘stateless’, of ‘unknown nationality’, or their nationality was recorded as ‘Palestine’. Many more come from countries with problematic nationality laws, such as Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Iran, Eritrea or Sudan, where gender discrimination or state succession means they or their children are at risk of statelessness. People affected by statelessness face discrimination if reasonable accommodation is not made for their nationality problems in international protection procedures and the provision of essential services. Most countries in Europe are inadequately prepared to respond: only a handful have procedures in place to determine who is stateless on their territory and grant them the specific rights enshrined in international and regional law with respect to the protection of stateless people and the right to a nationality. WHAT IS THE REFUGEE CONTEXT IN GREECE? Greece experienced a significant increase in arrivals of people seeking international protection in 2015, which has continued through 2017. Trends in onward movement have shifted since the EUTurkey agreement in March 2016. The Greek Asylum Service reports 58,661 asylum applications were lodged in Greece in 2017. The top recorded countries of origin of asylum applicants in 2017 were Syria (42%), Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Iran, Palestine, Georgia and Egypt. According to the Asylum Information Database1, the proportion of women (22%) and children (37%) arriving has increased, amounting to 59% of arrivals by sea. Reception facilities are critically overcrowded, there have been outbreaks of violence in Moria Camp on Lesvos, and conditions have been strongly criticised. Access to the procedure, to legal advice, and delays in decision making are also reported as areas of concern. WHAT IS THE LEGAL SITUATION FOR STATELESS PEOPLE IN GREECE? Greece is state party to the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons2, the UN Convention that defines a stateless person and sets out the rights that should be granted to stateless people (such as, a residence permit, right to work, study, family reunion, and naturalisation). Greece is not state party to the 1961 Convention on the Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness nor the 1997 European Convention on Nationality, which contain important safeguards against childhood statelessness and arbitrary deprivation of nationality. There is no dedicated Statelessness Determination Procedure in Greece. Although in April 2016 Law 4375/20163 assigned responsibility for implementing a Procedure to the Greek Asylum Service and authorised a Presidential Decree to be issued setting out the details, this Decree has not yet been published. Greek nationality law contains provisions to safeguard children born on its territory from statelessness, but it’s not clear how these are implemented in practice.4 https://www.asylumineurope.org/reports/country/greece http://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/wp-content/uploads/1954-Convention-relating-to-the-Status-of-Stateless-Persons_ENG.pdf 3 Law No. 4375 of 2016 on the organization and operation of the Asylum Service, the Appeals Authority, the Reception and Identification Service, the establishment of the General Secretariat for Reception, the transposition into Greek legislation of the provisions of Directive 2013/32/EC 4 http://globalcit.eu/country-profiles/ 1 2 1