Hellenic League for Human Rights

The Personal Data Protection Authority has imposed a 175,000-euro fine on the Migration and Asylum Ministry for the development and installation of the Hyperion and Centaur biometric control and surveillance systems at the reception centers for asylum seekers on islands of the Aegean.

If you walk into a tiger's cage, a friend quipped, make sure you don't touch the wild cat's whiskers. Put differently, when you challenge a more intelligent person than yourself to a public debate, do not attempt to underestimate their intelligence; you only risk exposing yourself to ridicule.

Given the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Hellenic League for Human Rights has called on the ministers of citizens' protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis, and justice, Kostas Tsiaras, to take immediate action to decongest prisons around the country.

It increases the number of people who will have to undergo border admissibility procedures before they can submit a proper asylum request. Even unaccompanied children and other vulnerable asylum seekers could be examined in future under accelerated procedures; PTSD is scrapped from the list of conditions that entitle applicants to obtain vulnerable status.

As migrant flows from Turkey to the Greek islands continue unabated, the Ministry of Citizens' Protection was expected to submit a bill to Parliament early Tuesday introducing drastic changes to the country's asylum system.

Greece's data protection authority (HDPA) ruled on Wednesday that keeping records of the religious faith of students violates the constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.

This decision concerned the inclusion of the student's' faith on school degrees or the Education Ministry's online "myschool" website.

Greece's data protection authority (HDPA) ruled that including the religion and nationality of pupils on high school degrees and the Education Ministry's online "myschool" website violates the constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.

In the early morning of May 24, a Turkish journalist fleeing a long prison sentence at home crossed the river dividing Greece and Turkey and claimed asylum in a police station on the other side.

A few hours later, according to two human rights organizations, the journalist, Murat Capan, was still in police custody — but back in Turkey, having been forced to return at gunpoint.

It is difficult to believe that after Greece's judiciary offered protection to eight members of the Turkish military, rejecting Ankara's request for their extradition, the government would agree to the illegal, secret and inhuman expulsion of people who requested asylum here. Yet unease grows.

The United Nations refugee agency is expressing deep concern at reports that Turks seeking asylum in Greece have been forcibly returned to Turkey by Greek authorities.

The UNHCR said Thursday it is "of vital importance" that Greek authorities comprehensively investigate the allegations.