56 M.S.S. v. BELGIUM AND GREECE JUDGMENT conformity with Community and international law on asylum, including the principle of non-refoulement. Greek law provided for the examination of the merits of asylum applications with regard to Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention. Asylum-seekers had access to the services of an interpreter at every step of the proceedings. 275. The Government confirmed that the applicant’s application for asylum had not yet been examined by the Greek authorities but assured the Court that it would be, with due regard for the standards mentioned above. 276. In conformity with Article 13 of the Convention, unsuccessful asylum-seekers could apply for judicial review to the Supreme Administrative Court. According to the Government, such an appeal was an effective safety net that offered the guarantees the Court had requested in its Bryan v. the United Kingdom judgment (22 November 1995, § 47, Series A no. 335-A). They produced various judgments in which the Supreme Administrative Court had set aside decisions rejecting asylum applications because the authorities had failed to take into account certain documents that referred, for example, to a risk of persecution. In any event, the Government pointed out that providing asylum-seekers whose applications had been rejected at first instance with an appeal on the merits was not a requirement of the Convention. 277. According to the Government, complaints concerning possible malfunctions of the legal aid system should not be taken into account because Article 6 did not apply to asylum procedures. In the same manner, any procedural delays before the Supreme Administrative Court fell within the scope of Article 6 of the Convention and could therefore not be examined by the Court in the present case. 278. Moreover, as long as the asylum procedure had not been completed, asylum-seekers ran no risk of being returned to their country of origin and could, if necessary, ask the Supreme Administrative Court to stay the execution of an expulsion order issued following a decision rejecting the asylum application, which would have the effect of suspending the enforcement of the measure. The Government provided several judgments in support of that affirmation. 279. The Government averred in their oral observations before the Grand Chamber that even in the present circumstances the applicant ran no risk of expulsion to Afghanistan at any time as the policy at the moment was not to send anyone back to that country by force. The forced returns by charter flight that had taken place in 2009 concerned Pakistani nationals who had not applied for asylum in Greece. The only Afghans who had been sent back to Afghanistan – 468 in 2009 and 296 in 2010 – had been sent back on a voluntary basis as part of the programme financed by the European Return Fund. Nor was there any danger of the applicant being sent to Turkey because, as he had been transferred to Greece by another