Overview of the main changes since the previous report update

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The report was previously updated in September 2025.

International Protection

• Key asylum statistics: The Asylum Service experienced a 20% decrease in first-time asylum applications but a notable 33% increase in subsequent applications compared to 2024. Despite fewer first-time applicants, total pending applications at first instance rose by 6%. The majority of applicants were from Afghanistan (15,296), Egypt (9,548), Sudan (8,179), Syria (3,511), and Bangladesh (3,132). A total of 37,868 in-merit decisions were issued in 2025, the majority of which granted refugee (64.3%) or subsidiary protection (6.3%) status.

Asylum procedure

• Arrivals: Total arrivals to Greece dropped by about 21%, to 48,298, in 2025 (from 60,886 in 2024). However, entry dynamics shifted drastically toward the south, with Crete emerging as the primary entry point, receiving 41% of all arrivals, followed by Evros (14.7%) and Samos (10.6%). Main nationalities of sea arrivals were Afghanistan (24%), Sudan (22%), and Egypt (20%), with 68% of newcomers being men, 12% women, and 20% children. A total of 105 persons were reported as dead and missing by UNHCR. As in previous years, figures on entries may under-represent the actual number of people attempting to access Greek territory due to continued reports of pushbacks.
• Push-back practices: Allegations of pushbacks continued to be reported in 2025, despite the landmark ECtHR Ruling in the case of R.E. v. Greece, which following the Court’s rejection of the Greek government’s request to refer the case before the Grand Chamber, became final in July 2025. During the year, GCR submitted 24 urgent requests for interim measures to the ECtHR on behalf of 131 asylum seekers at risk of summary expulsion, all of which were granted by the Court. The National Transparency Authority (NTA) has not made public any further investigations or recommendations on pushbacks in 2025.
• Pylos shipwreck: In February 2025, the Greek Ombudsman completed his independent inquiry, finding severe and reprehensible omissions of search and rescue duties by senior Coast Guard officers. In May 2025, the competent Prosecutor of the Piraeus Naval Court initiated criminal proceedings against 17 Coast Guard members. Although the cases of four senior officers were initially archived, the Prosecutor of the Court of Appeal accepted survivors’ appeals in November 2025, bringing independent criminal charges against all four, including the (at the time) Head of the Coast Guard.
• Access to the procedure: In July 2025, pursuant to Article 79 L. 5218/2025, the Greek government imposed a three month (14 July to 14 October) suspension on the submission of asylum applications by persons arriving irregularly by watercraft from North Africa, resulting in the blanket administrative detention of newcomers. Systemic barriers to accessing asylum on the mainland, via the Ministry’s online platform, continued to be an issue of concern in 2025, further exacerbated by the halt in EU-funded interpretation services due to government payment delays exceeding €2.5 million.
• The safe third country concept: On 27 February 2025, the Greek Council of State (CoS) officially annulled the Joint Ministerial Decision (JMD) designating Türkiye as a safe third country, establishing that the underlying legal criteria had not been properly assessed. In blatant disregard of this ruling, on 9 April 2025, the Greek government issued a new, identical JMD, re-designating Türkiye as a safe third country for applicants from Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, before the CoS judgment was even finalised or published. Despite the government’s persistence, the number of safe third country decisions fell sharply in 2025, recording a 78% decrease at first instance, and 91% at second. The new JMD was again challenged before the Council of State by GCR and RSA in June 2025, with the decision pending, following a hearing on 4 November 2025.
• Syria: Following the fall of the Assad regime, the Asylum Service suspended decisions for Syrian nationals to reassess country of origin information, leading to the first-ever substantive in-merit rejections of international protection for Syrian applicants in 2025.
• Second instance procedures: Most appeals continued to be rejected, with recognition rates at second instance standing at 6.5% in 2025. A December 2024 CoS ruling declaring the single-member composition of Independent Appeals Committees unconstitutional was made public in June 2025. Formalistic rejections remained an issue of concern, with close to half of the 3,502 appeals that were dismissed as inadmissible, being rejected on account of late submission.
• Restriction of Safeguards: In August 2025, JMD 147627/2025 entered into force, severely rolling back procedural safeguards for unaccompanied minors. The new framework mandates that all age-assessment phases (physical, psychosocial, and X-ray) must occur within a single day, while explicitly giving primacy to radiological findings over holistic evaluations. The JMD further slashes the appeal deadline from 15 down to just 5 days, while introducing an automatic, even if rebuttable, presumption of adulthood if a child refuses to undergo intrusive medical checks.

Reception conditions

• Statistics: The Reception and Identification Service (RIS) registered a total of 50,840 persons during 2025, the majority of whom men (39,903) and women (10,937), primarily between the ages of 18 to 34. Slightly more than 1 in 5 of those registered were minors, most of whom 13 years old and younger (6,214), while close to 1 in 3 of those registered, were registered as vulnerable (15,345). Main registered vulnerabilities concerned victims of torture (7,222), unaccompanied minors (2,713), and single-parent families with minors (2,454), with main nationalities comprising of Afghanistan (13,471), Sudan (8,641) and Egypt (7,837).
• Systemic Access Gaps: Delays in accessing reception persisted throughout 2025, driven by chronic, structural blockages in accessing the asylum procedure on the mainland. Individuals attempting to secure registration appointments via the Ministry’s online platform were left in a protracted state of legal limbo, without access to material reception conditions. In flagrant disregard of multiple national Court Rulings, the Ministry continued to systematically deny these individuals the formal status of asylum applicants during the waiting period.

Detention of asylum seekers

• Detention statistics: A total of 22,520 detention orders were issued during 2025, following a removal decision (17.6% increase compared to 2024). In addition, 3,280 asylum seekers have been detained in pre-removal detention centers (PRDCs) during the year (decrease of 36.5% compared to 2024). The number of third country nationals under administrative detention at year’s end stood at 2,586, with 1 in 3 (32.5%) detainees being an asylum applicant. A total of 431 UAM were detained (‘hosted’ according to the information provided by the Police) in PRDCs during 202
• Detention without reasonable prospect of return: the practice continued throughout the year. Indicatively, 4,330 detention orders for the purpose of removal were issued against Afghan nationals during the year, with roughly 300 Afghans remaining in detention at year’s end, even though the Hellenic police expressly confirmed that returns to Afghanistan do not take place since 2021, while readmissions under the EU-Türkiye Statement remain suspended since 2020.
• Expansion of Detention Grounds and time limits: Law 5226/2025 drastically expanded administrative detention grounds, criminalising “illegal stay”, and lengthened maximum administrative detention limits from 18 to 24 months, extending the possible duration of migration-related detention to 48 months (24 months in the context of asylum + 24 months in view of removal).
• Deficiencies in Judicial Review: Structural deficits in automatic legality oversight remained acute in 2025. Out of 25,497 police detention orders, less than 1% were overturned via ex officio judicial reviews.

Content of international protection

• Statistics: A total of 27,181 individuals were granted international protection in Greece in 2025 (at first or second instance). By the end of the year, 96,438 international protection Residence Permits (ADET) were active, concerning primarily nationals of Aghanistan (35.8%), Syria (20.2%), Palestine (11.5%), Iraq (8.1%) and Eritrea (4%).
• Ongoing renewal bottlenecks: Delays particularly in the renewal of residence permits (ADETs) persisted in 2025, with 7,640 renewal applications pending at the Asylum Service at year’s end, in several cases for over a year.
• Format Changes to Application Attestations: The attestation of application status issued by Aliens Directorates was reformatted in 2025 to include a photograph, a fixed six-month validity, and an explicit reference to Article 31 of Law 5226/2025. However, the document lacks a unique identification number, which prevents it from being processed through the ERGANI system, actively blocking access to the labour market and social benefits.
• De-facto Re-examinations and Mass Revocations: In late 2025 and early 2026, the Hellenic Police initiated a highly restrictive practice during the residence permit (ADET) renewal stage, demanding that beneficiaries under the “old procedure” submit proof within 20 days detailing why they still face persecution. This has effectively functioned as a merits re-examination, sparking non-renewals and cessations of protection, particularly for Afghan nationals. In parallel, between March and April 2026, the Asylum Service proceeded with the mass revocation of refugee status for 1,203 Syrian nationals.
• CJEU Referral: In November 2025, the European Commission officially referred Greece to the CJEU due to discriminatory treatment regarding beneficiaries’ access to social welfare. Despite this, discriminatory AMKA (Social Security) activation requirements introduced in late 2023 were maintained and continued to systematically lock beneficiaries out of public healthcare.
• Intensified European Returns: Readmissions of recognised refugees from other EU member states intensified during 2025, despite ongoing barriers to integration. European authorities, primarily from Germany and Switzerland, issued 3,710 readmission requests to the Hellenic Police, resulting in the physical return of 725 beneficiaries to Greek territory.

Temporary protection

The information given hereafter constitute a short summary of the 2025 Report on Temporary Protection. For further information, see Annex on Temporary Protection.

• Key temporary protection statistics: A total of 38,138 people were granted temporary protection (TP) or received temporary protection cards in Greece since 2022, 5,566 of which during 2025. The vast majority of TP beneficiaries since 2022 have been women (26,759), mostly between the ages of 35 and 64.

Temporary protection procedure:

• In February 2026, the temporary protection framework was officially prolonged for an additional 12 months, extending its validity up to 4 March 2027. More favourable domestic terms continue to apply to individuals who left Ukraine from 26 November 2021 onwards, and no entry denials were reported at the borders.

Content of temporary protection

• Rights attached: Persons benefit from specific family reunification rules foreseen for temporary protection, freedom of movement, access to the labour market and to education and vocational training, social welfare, healthcare, although not at the same level as Greek nationals or other legally residing third country nationals. Βeneficiaries of temporary protection can also apply, through an electronic platform, for any residence permit of the new Migration Code (L. 5038/2023) without the requirement of a valid visa.
• Housing: The main form of accommodation provided was reception centres and the Helios+ integration programme. As of 31 March 2026, Ukrainian nationals represented close to 32% of the Helios+ programme’s total beneficiaries, with TP beneficiaries representing close to 42% of total households benefiting from the programme’s rental subsidy.