An enquiry on Monday (6 July) by the European Ombudsman has revealed mishandling of asylum applicants in Greece by the Malta-based EU Asylum Agency (EUAA).
Mistakes included failure to flag cases of human trafficking and pushbacks, possibly due to insufficient staff training.
A missing mechanism for asylum seekers to report mistakes made during asylum interviews was also spotted, leading the EU watchdog to open an enquiry, resulting in four recommendations to address these gaps.
Two legal aid NGOs on the island of Samos, a migrant arrival hotspot in the east Aegean, initially reported concerns about how EUAA caseworkers conducted interviews with vulnerable asylum applicants while providing them with legal support in November 2022.
Confronted with inaction, I Have Rights Samos and Avocats sans Frontières France later lodged an additional complaint for improper assessment of asylum applications involving traumatic experiences, often by victims of torture and inhuman treatment, as well as not following up on reports of pushbacks by the Greek coastguard.
