Human Rights Organizations Urge Greece to Reject Asylum Seeker Law Amendments

Main human rights and refugee support NGOs urged Greek authorities to reject any changes to the country's asylum seeker protection laws despite EU pressure.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Over a dozen leading human rights and refugee support organizations Friday called on Greek lawmakers to reject any changes to the country's asylum seeker protection laws despite EU pressure.

The Greek parliament is expected to vote in the coming days on tightening Greece's asylum seeker laws to comply with the EU Joint Action Plan implementing last year's Turkey-EU deal.

"We are writing to urge you to reject any changes to legislation, based on the European Commission’s Joint Action Plan (JAP) on the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement, which will worsen the situation for Greek islanders and further erode the rights of people arriving to the islands in search of safety and protection in Europe," the 13 organizations said in a statement published by Human Rights Watch.

The NGOs, which also include Save the Children, Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and a number of Greek human rights and migrant rights watchdogs, asked Greek lawmakers to keep Greek Law 4375/2016, which excludes those most vulnerable and those eligible for family reunification from the EU-Turkey migrant deal, unamended.

"Removing this safeguard would mean that significantly larger numbers of people would be required to remain on the islands for prolonged periods of time… It could also result in the return to Turkey of very vulnerable people, those entitled to be reunited with their families in Europe, and even unaccompanied children," the letter said.

Greek Law 4375/2016 was hastily adopted in 2016 in the wake of the Turkey-EU deal amid debates on how to implement the agreement. Under the March 2016 deal, Ankara agreed to take back all undocumented migrants who arrive on the Greek islands via Turkey.