M.S.S. v. BELGIUM AND GREECE JUDGMENT
57
European Union member State, he did not fall within the scope of the
readmission agreement concluded between Greece and Turkey.
280. In their oral observations before the Grand Chamber, the
Government further relied on the fact that the applicant had not kept the
appointment of 21 June 2010 for an initial interview on 2 July 2010, when
that interview would have been an opportunity for him to explain his fears
to the Greek authorities in the event of his return to Afghanistan. It
followed, according to the Government, that not only had the applicant
shown no interest in the asylum procedure, but he had not exhausted the
remedies under Greek law regarding his fears of a violation of Articles 2
and 3 of the Convention.
B. Observations of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human
Rights, the UNHCR, the AIRE Centre, Amnesty International
and the Greek Helsinki Monitor, third-party interveners
281. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, the
UNHCR, the AIRE Centre, Amnesty International and the Greek Helsinki
Monitor were all of the opinion that the current legislation and practice in
Greece in asylum matters were not in conformity with international and
European human rights protection standards. They deplored the lack of
adequate information, or indeed of any proper information at all about the
asylum procedure, the lack of suitably trained staff to receive and process
asylum applications, the poor quality of first-instance decisions owing to
structural weaknesses and the lack of procedural guarantees, in particular
access to legal aid and an interpreter and the ineffectiveness as a remedy of
an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court because of the excessively
long time it took, the fact that it had no automatic suspensive effect and the
difficulty in obtaining legal aid. They emphasised that “Dublin” asylumseekers were faced with the same obstacles in practice as other asylumseekers.
282. The Commissioner and the UNHCR expressed serious concern
about the continuing practice by the Greek authorities of forced returns to
Turkey, be they collective or individual. The cases they had identified
concerned both persons arriving for the first time and those already
registered as asylum-seekers.
C. The Court’s assessment
1. Admissibility
283. The Greek Government submitted that the applicant was not a
victim within the meaning of Article 34 of the Convention because he alone
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