People who reach Athens on their own, via the Evros land border or the Attica coastline, can enter the asylum procedure only by booking an appointment at one of four screening centres: Malakasa, Diavata, Serres or Sintiki. Applicants can complete the online application up to the very last step. When they select “Final submission”, the platform returns an automatic message: “No available dates were found for the location you selected”. In the cases Equal Rights supports, it returned this message for all four centres. There is no other way to register.
Among the short update’s key findings:
- Without registration, people have no document showing that they have asked for asylum. Every identity check can end in arrest.
- They receive no place in a reception facility, no cash assistance and no health coverage as asylum seekers. In Attica, many end up homeless.
- Unlawful entry or stay is prosecuted under Law 5226/2025, in Athens on the same day under the flagrante delicto procedure. This also happens to people who go to the police themselves to ask for asylum.
- Criminal proceedings and administrative detention run in parallel. From pre-removal detention, access to screening is neither automatic nor prompt.
- Once a return decision has been issued, an asylum application made more than seven days later is inadmissible.
- In the cases Equal Rights supports, people reached the asylum procedure only after legal intervention, often only after arrest and detention.
In one case, a 19-year-old Syrian woman who approached the police to seek asylum was arrested and detained, although she had submitted a written asylum request. Only after legal proceedings did the Administrative Court find her detention unlawful. At present, whether a person can apply for asylum on the Greek mainland depends on whether they find a lawyer.
EU law is clear. Under the Asylum Procedure Regulation, an application is made as soon as a person expresses the wish to apply for protection, including to the police, and it must be registered within five days. Member States may not make access to the procedure practically impossible, and the Refugee Convention prohibits penalties for unlawful entry or stay on refugees who present themselves to the authorities. Prosecuting people for being undocumented while the only way to register is closed turns the state’s own failure into a criminal offence.
Equal Rights calls on the Greek authorities to restore the booking platform, register asylum requests made to the police and stop criminal prosecution. The European Commission must monitor access to the asylum procedure on the Greek mainland and open infringement proceedings if access is not restored. Equal Rights Beyond Borders will continue to monitor access to asylum on the mainland and publish further findings.