The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention visited Greece from 21 January to 31 January. In its end-of-mission statement, the Group underlines several flaws in Greece's detention policies, in particular regarding asylum seekers. The Group notes that disproportionately long detention of asylum seekers with no application of alternatives and in absence of effective judicial review may be considered as arbitrary. Moreover, the Group considers that detention as long as 18 months (which is the maximum in Greece for asylum seekers) in deficient conditions may amount to unwarranted punishment.
The applicants, Ibrahima Diallo and Mamadou Dian Diallo, are two Guinean nationals who were born in 1980 and 1985, respectively. In the autumn of 2006, they arrived at Prague airport by plane from Dakar (Senegal), having transferred in Lisbon. They both applied immediately for asylum claiming they would be detained, and possibly even killed, if they returned to Guinea where the police had been searching for them.
The case concerns a couple of Palestinians who were recognised as refugees by the UNRWA. In 2003 they were forced to leave the refugee camp where they used to live in Jordan owing to a conflict with a local family, and went to France. They applied for asylum, but their claims were rejected by the French Asylum Office.
The applicants are Russian nationals who live in Grozny, the Chechen Republic. The case concerned the disappearance of Beslan Baysultanov, the applicants’ son and brother, respectively, in May 2000, after he had been taken away by armed men in uniforms.
The Dutch Council for Refugees reports that it has been revealed that Chinese informants working as interpreters in asylum cases were passing on information regarding Uyghuri applications for asylum in the Netherlands. Seeking asylum is treated as an act of treason by the Chinese Government, which places returned Uyghurs in danger if suspected of applying for asylum
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will be holding the second part of its 2013 Ordinary Session next week, during which two reports concerning asylum and migration issues will be discussed and adopted together with related resolutions and recommendations: Frontex: human rights responsibilities and Management of mixed migration and asylum challenges beyond the European Union's eastern border. Both reports have been prepared by the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons. The debates are scheduled for Thursday 25 April.
The applicant is an Ethiopian national who claimed asylum in Sweden in 2007 on the ground that he had been beaten, imprisoned and tortured after criticising the 2005 elections in his country. His asylum claim was rejected by the authorities who found that he had failed to prove any future risk of ill-treatment if he were sent back to Ethiopia. The applicant argued that his removal to Ethiopia would put him at risk of death or treatment contrary to Article 3.
UNHCR recommends that Dublin participating States refrain from transferring asylum seekers under the Dublin Regulation to Hungary, in cases where those asylum seekers have or may have been in Serbia prior to entering Hungary. In a note published this week, UNHCR highlights that Hungary considers Serbia to be a ‘safe third country’, and systematically returns asylum seekers who have transited through Serbia to that country without examination of their claims on the merits.
On 15 May, the Belgian official journal published the list of safe countries of origin for 2013. The list includes the same seven countries as in 2012: Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and India.
