On 23rd November 2021, we published research on the Skype pre-registration process on the Greek mainland and Crete and Rhodes. Our "Lives on Hold" report, looks into the long delays people experience when trying to reach the Greek Asylum Service on Skype and the living conditions people are forced to endure whilst they are unregistered.
We spoke with 25 people seeking asylum and analysed more than 1,100 case files to produce this research. We’re incredibly grateful to all those we spoke with for their invaluable insight.
We believe that the Skype system remains the most important obstacle to accessing asylum in Greece. We hope that by evidencing the problems, we can convince the Greek government to make changes to the Skype procedure to ensure that everyone has fair and efficient access to asylum in Greece. When we analysed our case files we found that 1 in 6 people contacting us were asking how to claim asylum.
Our research shows that people often do not have access to information on how to claim asylum. We found that most people (84%) find out about the asylum procedure through other people seeking asylum. We also found worrying stories of people who were poorly treated by the police and Greek Asylum Service when they had tried to get information there.
Although international and national law protect the right to asylum, the current Skype system means that people are not able to enter the asylum system for long periods of time. For people we spoke to, the average time attempting to reach Skype was 14 months. 7 people we spoke to had been trying to reach Skype for more than two years.
Whilst people are trying to reach the Greek Asylum Service on Skype they receive no support from the Greek state. This means that many people are without money, food or homes. We found that the rate of homelessness for people trying to reach the Greek Asylum Service on Skype was 74 times higher than the national homelessness rate of Greece.
Whilst people are unregistered they are also not able to access state healthcare. We found many cases of people who were sick and needed medical assistance but were denied it due to their legal status. After international protection, healthcare was seen as the most important benefit of being registered for asylum in Greece.
We found many cases of people paying lawyers for paperwork that they were told would protect them. Yet, to our knowledge, these papers cannot guarantee protection against detention or deportation. Many lawyers charged a lot of money for these papers and other assistance. We also found many cases of lawyers taking money from people but not assisting with their cases.
We talked to people about how they were managing to survive in Greece. Many people had been forced to find work illegally to support themselves. Sadly, this often resulted in very poor pay or bad working conditions, but people had no other choice as they needed to eat and survive.
We believe that the current Skype procedure leaves people excluded from asylum for unnecessarily long periods of time. Everyone has the right to seek asylum and to receive support which allows a decent standard of living whilst they are waiting for their claim to be examined. We do not think that the Skype system is in line with any protection standards and we do not believe that people should be at risk of detention, deportation and pushbacks.
We believe that the Skype system needs to be changed urgently. We have made many recommendations to the Greek government on what should be done. These recommendations would:
Simplify the Skype procedure and increase the number of hours per week a person could call
Make sure authorities gave accurate information on the asylum procedure
Allow people other options to register their claim such as in person or in writing
We also made recommendations to the European Commission. These recommendations would:
Make sure Europe held Greece accountable when it does not meet protection standards