Equal Legal Aid

14/08/2026

Ceuta: Sort, send back, but don’t protect - https://mailchi.mp/e2af4c33a645/ceuta-sort-send-back-but-dont-protect

10/08/2026

📢 Today, Equal Legal Aid publishes Breaking the Continuum of Violence: Confronting Greece’s failure to protect survivors of gender-based violence.

Survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) have a right to seek safety and international protection. International law recognises gender-based violence as a form of persecution and serious harm that can give rise to refugee status or subsidiary protection. It also requires gender-sensitive asylum procedures and safeguards against return to situations where people face torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, or further violence.

Yet our findings show that, in Greece, many survivors encounter another continuum of harm after arrival:

❌ Unsafe and unsuitable accommodation, with too little privacy and inadequate protection from further abuse.

❌ Serious gaps in medical, psychosocial and material support.

❌ Remote asylum interviews that undermine confidentiality, alongside insufficient access to female interpreters and caseworkers.

❌ Decision-making that can minimise survivors’ accounts, impose unrealistic evidentiary expectations, or dismiss forced marriage and other forms of violence as “private matters.”

➡️ Only one in six of the 82 SGBV survivors supported by our team received a positive decision at first instance.

These are systemic failures that can prevent survivors from disclosing violence, having their claims fairly assessed, and accessing the protection to which they may be entitled.

Survivors should not have to prove their experiences under conditions that reproduce fear, shame and insecurity. Greece must ensure safe, single-sex accommodation; accessible healthcare and psychosocial support; in-person interviews conducted in conditions of trust and confidentiality; and trained, gender-sensitive staff throughout the asylum process.

Greece must ensure:
✅ Safe, single-sex accommodation
✅ Accessible healthcare and psychosocial support
✅ In-person interviews conducted in conditions of trust and confidentiality
✅ Trained, gender-sensitive staff throughout the asylum process

Our report sets out the evidence, the legal framework and the reforms urgently needed to break this continuum of violence.

Read the full report: https://www.equallegalaid.org/publications?modal_page=asset-pdf&modal_detail_id=report-breaking-the-continuum-of-violence

20/07/2026

📢 Equal Legal Aid and Data for Good launch an open-access database of Greek asylum case law.

Currently, there is no open-access digital tool giving public and centralised access to Greek asylum and migration case law. Jurisprudence stays locked in private archives, invisible or scattered across multiple, disconnected collections.

Yet legal reasoning that has already proven effective in court should not remain the privilege of those with access to it.

This is why we built a tool to make this legal engineering publicly accessible: to defend individuals who are systematically exposed to multiple violations of their rights, and to ensure that proven arguments can be replicated, strengthened, and reused wherever they are needed.

Explore it here: https://www.equallegalaid.org/caselaw

This platform exists today thanks to the Data for Good volunteers: developers and data experts who worked tirelessly alongside us from initial concept to launch. We are deeply grateful for their expertise and dedication.

A huge thank you to Antoine, Arnaud, Kira, Manon, and Raphael, who piloted the project, as well as to Marianne, Francis, Orestis, Laure-Line, Lydia, Kinda, Maxime, Elizabeth, Farzaneh, Monique, Louis, Achille, Emilie, Jeanne, Pierre, Clara, Thibault, and Juliette — all volunteers who made this happen.

14/07/2026

We have contributed to the new issue of the Asylum Case Law Bulletin, covering the 1st half of 2026, coordinated by Refugee Support Aegean - Υποστήριξη Προσφύγων στο Αιγαίο, @Ελληνικό Συμβούλιο για τους Πρόσφυγες - Greek Council for Refugees, and Greece.

Issue 1/2026 presents excerpts from 59 decisions issued by administrative, civil, and criminal courts, Independent Appeals Committees, and the Asylum Service during the first half of 2026, covering topics such as the assessment of the admissibility and merits of asylum applications, the revocation of international protection status, the criminal treatment of refugees, and administrative detention.

https://www.equallegalaid.org/contribution-to-greek-asylum-case-law-report-issue-1-2026/

📣 Δημοσιεύουμε σήμερα το νέο τεύχος του Δελτίου Νομολογίας Ασύλου, για το 1ο εξάμηνο του 2026.

ℹ Το Δελτίο Νομολογίας Ασύλου είναι μία κοινή πρωτοβουλία των οργανώσεων RSA (Υποστήριξη Προσφύγων στο Αιγαίο), Ελληνικό Συμβούλιο για τους Πρόσφυγες - Greek Council for Refugees και HIAS Greece.

📢 Στόχος της πρωτοβουλίας είναι η συλλογή και διανομή νομολογίας δικαστηρίων και αποφάσεων διοικητικών αρχών που αφορούν την προστασία των προσφύγων στην Ελλάδα.

ℹ Το Τεύχος 1/2026 του Δελτίου Νομολογίας Ασύλου παραθέτει αποσπάσματα από 59 αποφάσεις διοικητικών, πολιτικών και ποινικών δικαστηρίων, Ανεξάρτητων Επιτροπών Προσφυγών και της Υπηρεσίας Ασύλου, που εκδόθηκαν το πρώτο εξάμηνο του 2026.

📍 Οι αποφάσεις αυτές καλύπτουν θέματα όπως η αξιολόγηση του παραδεκτού και της ουσίας των αιτήσεων ασύλου, η ανάκληση καθεστώτος διεθνούς προστασίας, η ποινική μεταχείριση των προσφύγων και η διοικητική κράτηση.

🙏 Ευχαριστούμε τις οργανώσεις Equal Rights Beyond Borders, Equal Legal Aid, Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid, European Lawyers in Lesvos, Refugee Legal Support, Legal Centre Lesvos και The HOME Project, καθώς και τις/τους δικηγόρους του Μητρώου Δικηγόρων της Υπηρεσίας Ασύλου, για τη συνεισφορά αποσπασμάτων αποφάσεων επιλεγμένων από τις υποθέσεις που υποστηρίζουν στο πλαίσιο της νομικής τους δραστηριότητας.

📣 Όλα τα τεύχη του Δελτίου Νομολογίας Ασύλου διατίθενται δημόσια, ενώ μέσα από συνέργειες με έγκριτες βάσεις δεδομένων νομολογίας ενισχύουμε τη διανομή και την προσβασιμότητα της νομολογίας σε ευρύτερο κοινό εντός και εκτός Ελλάδας.

🔗 Σύνδεσμος στα σχόλια.

30/06/2026

In 2025, our team continued to stand alongside people forced to navigate the hostile asylum system in Greece. Read the full 2025 Activity Report and see what your solidarity has made possible:
https://www.equallegalaid.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/ELA-Annual-report-2025-online-version.pdf

29/06/2026

Our latest newsletter is out: Our latest newsletter is out: https://mailchi.mp/05c972deccf6/greece-the-asylum-ban-and-the-pact

16/06/2026

The second volume of ELA's Jurisprudence Collection is out!

A practitioner-orientated compilation of decisions issued between March 2023 and December 2025 in cases represented by lawyers collaborating with ELA before Greek administrative courts, the Appeals Committees, and the European Court of Human Rights.

The collection comprises 103 decisions and procedural documents:
- 21 applications for annulment (Administrative Courts of Athens, Thessaloniki & Piraeus) including 16 granted
- 60 applications for provisional measures with 85% success rate (52/60)
- 9 Independent Appeals Committee decisions
- 2 ECtHR Rule 39 interim measures
- 11 Greek Ombudsman letters on access to administrative files and nationality verification

Key legal issues addressed include:

⚖️ Safe Third Country / Safe Country of Origin: admissibility procedures under L. 4939/2022, including post-Council of State annulment of the Türkiye JMD and subsequent redesignation

⚖️ Arbitrary nationality determination: systematic misclassification of Eritrean nationals; Ombudsman interventions and judicial scrutiny of administrative practices at Lesvos CCAC

⚖️ Single-member Appeals Committees: unconstitutionality findings and implications for pending caseloads

⚖️ SGBV and LGBTQIA+ claims: credibility assessment standards, vulnerability identification failures, and evidentiary gaps in interview records

⚖️ Procedural irregularities: unlawful notification by email, right to a prior hearing, non-compliance with prior annulment decisions

⚖️ Subsequent applications: new and substantial evidence thresholds; non-refoulement considerations where readmission is de facto impossible

Decisions are indexed chronologically and thematically by keyword. An introductory analysis contextualises the case law within current procedural trends in the Greek asylum framework.

Available in English and Greek:
https://lnkd.in/dpYaWZQC

09/06/2026

Equal Legal Aid is participating in an upcoming conference on the current landscape of migration and asylum in Greece: “The Migration Issue in Greece: Legal Framework and Contemporary Challenges”

Organised by postgraduate students of the Interdepartmental Postgraduate Programme “Human Rights and Migration Studies” (HURMIS) of the University of Macedonia, the conference will examine current legal, social and humanitarian challenges relating to migration and asylum in Greece, bringing together members of the academic community, legal practitioners, professionals working in the field, representatives of civil society, and individuals with refugee experience, in an open and substantive dialogue.

Equal Legal Aid will be represented by Eleni Papageorgiou, Lawyer, who will deliver a presentation on “Challenges in the Asylum Process: Access to Asylum and Access to Legal Remedies.”

📍Venue: Conference Hall “Professor Elias I. Kouskouvelis”, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki
🕕Date and time: Thursday, 11 June 2026, at 18:00
🎟 Participation: Free of charge and open to the public

More info: https://www.uom.gr/20009-foithtikh-ekdhlosh-toy-dpms-hurmis-me-thema-to-metanasteytiko-zhthma-sthn-ellada-nomiko-plaisio-kai-sygxrones-proklhseis

02/06/2026

Do you have a legal background? Do you have experience in the field? Can you commit for a minimum of six months from October 2026 onwards?

If so, we would love to hear from you! We welcome applications from lawyers, legal counsels, trainee lawyers or postgraduate law students with experience in asylum law, subject to full-time long-term commitment (minimum 6 months) and previous similar experience in Greece or abroad.

We work continuously to assist refugees and asylum seekers with legal guidance and support in Greece. But we need your help to keep going. Please send us your CV and letter of motivation at [email protected].

13/05/2026

We are pleased to contribute to the discussion coordinated by ACCESS on procedural barriers to asylum within the European Union and the evolving role of domestic courts in addressing such barriers.

On 20 May 2026, Equal Legal Aid will be represented by Sofi Sazo (advocacy) and Athina Kalogridi (lawyer), who will present insights from the Greek context. Their intervention will draw on ongoing legal and advocacy work concerning access to asylum procedures, including recent practices affecting the effective exercise of the right to seek asylum and the scrutiny of such measures by national courts.

🗓 20 May 2026 | 16:00–18:00 (Greek time)
📍 Bologna and/or register online: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=3EeW6QgbSkW_jGmRgbOJqz55bjMBjuBOnAjEbYR_H0FUNDhSWVY5TjZGRUMyS0k0OVhYWDk3Q0kzSi4u