Author
As already noted (see section on Overpassing procedures prescribed by national legislation), newly arrived persons arriving in locations where no RICs/CCACs are in operations (for example Crete, Kalamata etc) are frequently subject to automatic detention in mainland PRDCs instead of Reception and Identification procedures. As part of this practice, towards the end of 2023 differential treatment was observed in some cases and namely in the case of 36 Egyptian nationals who were rescued in October 2023 as part of a SAR operations in the South of Greece, and who were subsequently transferred to the Corinth PRDC, where they have since remained in detention, without ever having undergone reception procedures, despite expressing their will to apply for asylum, which was registered in January 2024. On 13 May 2024, the Greek Ombudsman intervened on their behalf, inter alia noting that:[1]
- bypassing of the First Reception Service, through direct detention in PRDCs for both new arrivals in Evros and those rescued in shipwrecks, raises questions in terms of the law’s circumvention, the distortion of the character of the PRDCs and the consideration of all new arrivals as detainees to be returned.
- where there is no reasonable prospect of removal, detention shall be lifted.
- and questions are raised as to the separation of the specific applicants from the rest of their rescued fellow nationals and the imposition of a detention ban on them.
[1] Greek Ombudsman, 13/5/2024, protocol no.: 348399/23009.