Working for an organisation registered in the “NGO Registry” of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum becomes a punishable offence with the proposed changes to Articles 24 and 25 of the Migration Code.
After five years of constant recommendations from the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the UN to put an end to arbitrary restrictions on the work of civil society organisations supporting refugees and migrants, the Ministry continues to target the organisations deemed inconvenient solely for carrying out their work.
The mere membership of an organisation registered in the NGO Registry elevates misdemeanours such as facilitation of illegal stay, or refusal to hand a travel document, to felonies punishable by up to ten years’ imprisonment and fines of tens of thousands of euros. It is thus considered an aggravating circumstance sufficient to reclassify the offence as a felony, in an affront to fundamental principles of criminal policy and legislation. Mere criminal prosecution suffices for removal of the organisation from the Registry.
These provisions are intended to intimidate civil society. They are introduced only a few months after the Minister of Migration and Asylum made threats against the legal representatives of people who arrived in Crete during the unlawful three-month asylum ban and were protected from deportation by interim measures of the European Court of Human Rights. These attacks were immediately condemned by international and national institutions, yet the competent Minister refuses to retract them.
For the undersigned organisations, this attempt is unjust, unlawful, and unreasonable. We call for the immediate withdrawal of these provisions.
SIGNATORIES
- ART HUB Athens
- Association of Greek Conscientious Objectors
- Association of Greek Small- and Medium CSOs
- Boat Refugee Foundation
- Centre Diotima
- Changemakers Lab
- Civil Society Alliance Greece
- Collective Aid
- Community Peacemaker Teams-Aegean Migrant Solidarity
- Doctors of the World – Greek Delegation
- ECHO100PLUS
- Emfasis Non-Profit
- EmpowerVan
- Equal Legal Aid (ELA)
- Equal Rights Beyond Borders
- FemArtAct
- Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid
- Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
- Greek Forum of Migrants
- Greek Forum of Refugees
- Greek Helsinki Monitor
- Greek Housing Network
- Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR)
- HIAS Greece
- HIGGS
- The HOME Project
- Human Rights Legal Project
- I Have Rights
- Ithaca Laundry
- Inter Alia
- Intereuropean Human Aid Association
- InterMediaKT
- INTERSOS HELLAS
- Irida Women’s Center
- iSea
- Legal Centre Lesvos
- Mazí Housing
- Médecins Sans Frontières Greece
- Melissa Network of Migrant Women in Greece
- Mobile Info Team
- Nimertis Action Art
- Northern Lights Aid
- PΕkAmeA
- Police Violence Observatory – Copwatch GR
- PRAKSIS
- Project Armonia
- Reading to the Others
- Refugee Support Aegean (RSA)
- Safe Passage International Greece
- Samos Volunteers
- SHE – Society for Help and Empowerment
- Symbiosis-Council of Europe School of Political Studies in Greece
- Symplexis
- Velos Youth
- VIOZO – Greek Union of Consumers
- Women’s Self Defence Group
- Vouliwatch
