We, the undersigned humanitarian and human rights organisations, call on the Greek government to urgently uphold its legal obligations and moral responsibility to ensure the right to family reunification is effective and accessible for recognized refugees.
Our organisations provide legal and humanitarian assistance to refugees and migrants, including refugees attempting to reunify with family members in Greece. Several of our organisations have previously called on the Greek state to remove the insurmountable obstacles recognized refugees face when trying to exercise their right to family reunification, including removing the strict and inflexible requirements that are disconnected from the realities faced by the families of recognized refugees in their countries of residence. In the particular case of the families of Palestinian refugees with families trapped in Gaza, without international cooperation and assistance from third states, evacuation from Gaza is nearly impossible due to the ongoing genocide and resultant catastrophic situation in Gaza, compounded by Israel’s ongoing blockade and refusal to allow the sustained entry of aid and denial of freedom of movement for people to enter and exit.
The right to family reunification for recognized refugees, guaranteed under Greek, European, and international law is not just a right in theory. In Afrin v. Belgium (2023), the European Court of Justice made clear that family reunification must be both effective and accessible in practice.
The obstacles currently faced by recognized Palestinians with family in Gaza highlight a broken system, one that provides legal recognition of rights without the means to exercise them.
● In one case, after over a year of advocacy, the Greek Asylum Service approved a reunification request for a Palestinian refugee whose wife and child remain in Gaza, requiring the family members to appear at the Greek consulate in Cairo, without any support or safe evacuation route from Palestine to Egypt. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asserted that they are not responsible for supporting evacuations.
We understand that as an occupied territory of Palestine, exit from Gaza is controlled by the Israeli state, however, international cooperation mechanisms exist to facilitate the exit and entry of people from the besieged area. We urge Greece to follow examples set by other European countries, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, who have procedures to facilitate evacuations and reunification requests for families in Gaza. Greece, likewise, has already engaged with these mechanisms. In 2023, following the start of the latest Israeli assault on Palestinians in Gaza,
Greece facilitated the evacuation of Greek citizens. There is no legal or practical barrier to doing the same to uphold the rights of refugees legally residing in Greece.
We call on the Greek government to ensure the right to family reunification is both practical and effective, in line with its domestic and international obligations, by:
● Expediting reunification procedures, by reducing waiting times for family reunification interviews conducted by the Asylum Service, as well as addressing delays—particularly in the issuance of the required visa by the consulate in Cairo.
● Implementing evacuation support for the family members of recognized Palestinian refugees in Gaza, acknowledging that positive reunification decisions alone are insufficient.
Furthermore, we urgently restate our previous joint call on the Greek Government and Members of the Greek Parliament, in light of Greece’s role as an EU Member State and current member of the UN Security Council, to act decisively and exert institutional pressure to ensure immediate, sustained humanitarian access and a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, by demanding an end to the blockade, ensuring Greek and EU compliance with ICC arrest warrants, and an immediate EU-wide arms embargo on Israel.
Signatories:
– Border Violence Monitoring Network
– Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği – Progressive Lawyers Association-
– Collective Aid
– Defence for Children International Greece
– Emantes – International Lgbtqia+ Solidarity
– EmpowerVan
– Equal Legal Aid
– European Association of Lawyers for Democracy & World Human Rights
– Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid
– Giuristi Democratici Association – Italy
– Greek Council for Refugees
– Human Rights Legal Project
– I Have Rights
– Legal Centre Lesvos
– Mobile Info Team
– Portuguese Association of Democratic Jurists
– Safe Passage International – Greece
– Socialist Lawyers Association of Ireland
– Yoga and Sport with Refugees