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Sunday, May. 20, 2012 |  Syndicate content

Asylum seekers should be kept away from Greece, top EU court says

Page last updated at 04:52 GMT, Wednesday, December 21, 2011 - 09:52 EST

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Monsters and Critics:

European Union countries should not send asylum seekers back to their point of entry if their rights are likely to be violated there, the bloc's top court ruled Wednesday in a case involving Greece.

The Mediterranean country has faced international criticism over conditions in its overcrowded holding centres for migrants, asylum seekers and refugees.

The European Court of Justice noted reports that 'asylum procedures in Greece have serious shortcomings, the proportion of asylum applications which are granted is extremely low, judicial remedies are inadequate and very difficult to access and the conditions for reception of asylum seekers also inadequate.'

The two legal cases in question involve six people from Afghanistan, Algeria and Iran who first entered the EU illegally through Greece, but did not apply for asylum at the time.

One Afghan man later made his way to Britain, while the other five managed to reach Ireland and immediately sought asylum there.

Read the whole story: Monsters and Critics

Comments

Greece: Protection desperately needed!

December 22, 2011 by John Gurlides (United Kingdom ), 21 weeks 2 days ago

Face it: the overwhelming majority of these "asylum seekers" are really economic immigrants. Greece cannot afford to feed its own people right now so why does the EU expect us to welcome this endless stream of immigrants with any better facilities?
The Greek economy must be protected both from those who stretch its resources to the limit and - by far the bigger problem - from those who freely dump their products here whilst limiting what we can export.

Greece-World News