Asylum lawyers to get bonus for talking migrants into returning home
Lawyers hired by the government to advise asylum-seekers gratis on the process and their rights and obligations will receive a cash bonus if certain nationalities among the people they talk to give up and return to their home countries, under a ministerial decision made public Thursday.
According to government officials, the country has seen a surge in arrivals of people who are economic migrants rather than genuine asylum-seekers, as they come from countries such as Egypt and Bangladesh whose nationals are not usually granted protected status.
The joint decision by the ministries of migration, finance and justice sets out rules and regulations for free legal services to asylum-seekers, following Parliament’s approval of a new asylum law.
It allows for free legal guidance, following a request by migrants seeking protected status in Greece, once they have tabled their asylum application and before it is examined at a first degree. Applicants who already have a lawyer of their own will not have access to the free services.
Those who do will be briefed on the asylum process, their rights and obligations, deadlines and guarantees and means of appeal. But they will not be provided with specialised legal advice, helped to fill in their applications or prepared for their asylum interviews.
In the case of people from countries whose nationals have a success rate of less than 20% in their asylum applications, they will also be informed on the consequences of illegal entry and residence in Greece and on how to sign up for voluntary return programs.
For each migrant in that category who actually returns to their home country, lawyers will receive €250 plus sales tax – in addition to the basic €160 plus VAT fee for their advisory services, whether to individual asylum seekers or to groups.
Lawyers will be appointed from lists kept by local bar associations, and will not be allowed to later represent the asylum seekers on a private basis.
The sessions will generally be conducted remotely, in the presence of interpreters, with groups of up to 15 people. In cases of mass arrivals the groups can stretch to a maximum 50 people, while individual sessions will be held for asylum-seekers facing criminal prosecution.
So far, more than 15,000 people have entered Greece illegally this year – mostly crossing the Mediterranean Sea in small boats from Libya to the southern Greek island of Crete.
Last year, about 49,000 people from the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Africa entered Greece illegally by land and sea. Most seek to move on to Europe’s prosperous heartland, in pursuit of a better life.
Kathimerini
