Legal Note: UNHCR has Failed to Stand Up for Refugee Rights During Crucial EU-Turkey Deal Judgement
Oktober 2017
This legal note analyzes the role of UNHCR in a rule of the Council of State (Greece’s highest administrative court) against applications made by two Syrian asylum-seekers.
In the two cases, the Council of State ruled against the applications that were challenging the negative decisions by one of Greece’s Asylum Appeals Committees that considered Turkey a ›safe third country‹ for the applicants – thereby opening the door to forcible returns of Syrian asylum seekers to Turkey under provisions of the EU-Turkey deal. Refugee Support Aegean and PRO ASYL express their deep concern about UNHCR’s decision to stay silent about the violations of basic refugee rights in the name of the deal.