w2eu | 14.03.2017
The European Union Commission suggested the resumption of Dublin Returns to Greece, beginning in March 2017. With this announcement, the European governments show that they close their eyes to the fact that the living and detention conditions in the Greek camps continue to be deplorable and inhuman, that access to the asylum procedure is still not guaranteed, that procedures remain dysfunctional in general and that many of refugees continue to suffer from inhuman and degrading treatment while being stuck in Greece. The European Commission’s recommendation included a gradual resumption of returns, with a first focus to return the ones who arrived in Europe after this date (15th of March) and not including unaccompanied minors or other vulnerable persons at that point.
Following these recent developments, many rumours have been created and hundreds of refugees started in panic to move onwards from Turkey and Greece, in order to reach the destination countries before that date. We therefore, decided to write this information sheet to explain some facts on who might be affected, to emphasise the grey areas, where it is unclear what will happen, and to give you advise on what can be done to prepare and protect yourselves – because we expect a new struggle on all levels against this new deportation threat.