M.S.S. v. BELGIUM AND GREECE JUDGMENT
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– Human Rights Watch, Stuck in a Revolving Door – Iraqis and Other
Asylum Seekers and Migrants at Greece/Turkey Entrance to the European
Union, November 2008;
– Clandestino, Undocumented Migration: Counting the Uncountable:
Data and Trends Across Europe, December 2008;
– Human Rights Watch, Left to Survive, December 2008;
– Cimade, Droit d’Asile: les Gens de “Dublin II” – Parcours Juridique
de Demandeurs d’Asile Soumis à une Réadmission selon le Règlement
Dublin II, December 2008;
– Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights,
Mr T. Hammarberg, report prepared following his visit to Greece from
8 to 10 December 2008, 4 February 2009;
– Greek Council of Refugees, The Dublin Dilemma – “Burden Shifting”
and Putting Asylum Seekers at Risk, 23 February 2009;
– CPT, report prepared following its visit to Greece from 23 to
28 September 2008, 30 June 2009;
– Austrian Red Cross and Caritas, The Situation of Persons Returned by
Austria to Greece under the Dublin Regulation. Report on a Joint FactFinding Mission to Greece (May 23rd-28th 2009), August 2009;
– Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC), NOAS and Aitima, Out the
Back Door: The Dublin II Regulation and Illegal Deportations from
Greece, October 2009;
– Human Rights Watch, Greece: Unsafe and Unwelcoming Shores,
October 2009;
– UNHCR, Observations on Greece as a Country of Asylum,
December 2009;
– Amnesty International, The Dublin II Trap: Transfers of Dublin
Asylum Seekers to Greece, March 2010;
– National Commission for Human Rights (Greece), Detention
Conditions in Police Stations and Detention Areas of Aliens, April 2010;
– Amnesty International, Irregular Migrants and Asylum-Seekers
Routinely Detained in Substandard Conditions, July 2010.
B. Conditions of detention
161. The above-mentioned reports attest to a systematic practice of
detaining asylum-seekers in Greece from a few days up to a few months
following their arrival. The practice affects both asylum-seekers arriving in
Greece for the first time and those transferred by a member State of the
European Union under the Dublin Regulation. Witnesses report that no
information is given concerning the reasons for the detention.
162. All the centres visited by the bodies and organisations that
produced the reports listed above describe a similar situation to varying
degrees of gravity: overcrowding, dirt, lack of space, lack of ventilation,