With the proposed amendments to Articles 24 and 25 of the Immigration Code, being an employee of an organisation registered in the “NGO Registry” of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum becomes a criminal offense.
After five years of continuous recommendations by the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the UN to lift arbitrary restrictions on the operation of civil society organisations supporting refugees and migrants, the Ministry continues to target organisations it considers troublesome for the sole reason that they are doing their job.
Simply being a member of an organisation registered in the NGO Registry upgrades misdemeanors such as facilitating illegal residence or refusing to hand over travel documents to felonies punishable by imprisonment of ten years and fines of tens of thousands of euros. In other words, the declared and approved exercise of the right of association is considered an aggravating circumstance capable of upgrading the offense to a felony, in defiance of fundamental principles of anti-crime policy and criminal legislation. Furthermore, the mere initiation of criminal proceedings is sufficient for the organisation to be removed from the Registry.
These provisions are intended to intimidate us. They are being introduced just a few months after the threats made by the Minister of Migration and Asylum against the legal representatives of people who arrived on Crete during the illegal three-month suspension of asylum and were protected from deportation by interim measures of the European Court of Human Rights, which were immediately condemned by international and national institutions but which the competent minister refuses to revoke. European Court of Human Rights, which were immediately condemned by international and national institutions but which the competent Minister refuses to revoke.
For the undersigned organisations, this effort is unjust, illegal, and unreasonable. We demand the immediate withdrawal of these provisions.
The joint statement will remain open for signatures until Friday, January 23, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. Contact details: Alkistis Agrafioti Hatzigianni (a.agrafioti@gcr.gr), Minos Mouzourakis (m.mouzourakis@rsaegean.org).
The undersigned organisations:
- BIOZO – Panhellenic Consumers Union
- Doctors of the World – Greek Delegation
- Médecins sans frontières – Greek Section
- Women's Self-Defense Group
- Greek Housing Network
- Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR)
- Greek Helsinki Monitor
- Greek Forum of Migrants
- Greek Forum of Refugees
- Greek Counicl for Refugees (GCR)
- Civil Society Alliance Greece
- Diotima Centre
- Melissa Networks for Migrant and Refugee Women in Greece
- Copwatch GR
- Piraeus Association of Parents, Guardians & Friends of Persons with Disabilities (PEKAmeA)
- Symbiosis-School of Political Studies in Greece, affiliated to the Council of Europe Network of Schools
- Symplexis
- Association of Greek Conscientious Objectors
- Refugee Support Aegean (RSA)
- ART HUB Athens
- Boat Refugee Foundation
- Changemakers Lab
- Civil Society Alliance Greece
- Collective Aid
- Community Peacemaker Teams-Aegean Migrant Solidarity
- ECHO100PLUS
- Emfasis Non-Profit
- EmpowerVan
- Equal Legal Aid (ELA)
- Equal Rights Beyond Borders
- FemArtAct
- Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid
- HIAS Ελλάδος
- HIGGS
- Human Rights Legal Project
- The HOME Project
- I Have Rights
- Inter Alia
- InterMediaKT
- Intereuropean Human Aid Association
- INTERSOS HELLAS
- Irida Women’s Center
- iSea
- Legal Centre Lesvos
- Mazí Housing
- Mobile Info Team
- Nimertis Action Art
- Northern Lights Aid
- PRAKSIS
- Project Armonia
- Reading to the Others
- Safe Passage International Greece
- Samos Volunteers
- SHE – Society for Help and Empowerment
- Velos Youth
- Vouliwatch