Timetable: March 2015 – September 2016
Project manager: Greek Council for Refugees
Countries of implementation: Greece
Support: The Open Society Initiative for Europe
Aim: The overall Objective of the project is to ensure the respect of the fundamental human rights of refugees by focusing on access to an effective and fair asylum system for all and proper reception services upon their arrival in Greece.
The specific objectives of the project are:
1. Execute missions throughout Greece, including, but not restricted to: points of entry, detention and Pre-Removal centres and to the Asylum Service’s Regional Offices and First Reception Centres, in order to monitor, map, better understand and potentially improve the Conditions and Procedures implemented
2. Empower local communities and Civil Society entities and organisations at border areas to act effectively within the state system in their attempt to receive refugee populations arriving and to act as focal points for GCR
3. To foster and develop communication and cooperation channels with local, regional and national authorities in charge of border monitoring and asylum procedures, as well as other relevant Civil Society organisations
Activities:
Promotional events
18 missions (1 per month) by the Monitoring Officer to points of entry at the Borders, in order to assess and document the conditions and procedures of the reception services, by both the authorities and the local communities
18 Mission Reports
9 mission to Reception and Detention Centres throughout Greece by a lawyer, a social worker and 2 interpreters (Missions team). The missions will include meetings with the local community and Civil Society organisations and entities active in the region.
9 mission reports
- Interviews will be conducted with beneficiaries from complimentary GCR Projects
- Regular Meetings with relevant public officials
- Final Report drafted, publicized and disseminated
Results:
The short term outcome of the actions described above will be to provide a field mapping – including discrepancies as well as best practices – of the state’s ability to receive and protect mixed migration flows at the borders. In the medium-term, this would also enable Civil Society Organisations to better understand their role before the actual needs of the target group, in order to be able to provide supplementary supportive activities to those of the relevant authorities. Therefore, the interaction and cooperation of the latter with non-governmental organisations will be further increased. The Project also aims to empower local communities to effectively react to arrivals of third country nationals – particularly in remote areas of Greece. In the long term, the findings and recommendations will create a tool, improving the services provided by the State and ensuring that the Services, which are recently being institutionalized, provide the protection and reception services which asylum seekers, refugees and persons in need of international protection deserve.
Source: gcr.gr
