Loading...
Advocacy2022-08-09T07:36:52+00:00

General News


The EU-Funded Closed Controlled Access Centre – The De Facto Detention of Asylum Seekers on Samos

Press Release In their report out today, I Have Rights demonstrates that the Samos CCAC is a place of unlawful de facto detention which violates people on the move’s legal right to liberty and security as well as the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment under international [...]

Samos Closed Controlled Access Centre breaks EU human rights standards

In our joint contribution to a consultation launched by the EU Ombudsman under an inquiry on how the Commission can ensure human rights compliance in new 260 million euro EU funded reception facilities on the Greek islands, I Have Rights (IHR) and the International Rescue Committee [...]

February 6th, 2023|

Follow-up letter to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum

I Have Rights is one of 14 signatory organizations that sent a letter to the Minister of Migration and Asylum in September last year to raise the alarm on the risk of homelessness faced by recognized refugees due to administrative delays. Not only has the Minister not answered said [...]

January 27th, 2023|

Call to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum

I Have Rights, together with 10 organisations, sent a letter to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum urging them to abandon their plans to restrict access to Wi-Fi at the Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC) on Samos from January 2023. We and other stakeholders on Samos have learned that [...]

December 19th, 2022|

Stop immediately the pushbacks that endanger human lives and discredit the country internationally

Press release IT IS THE GREEK GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSIBILITY TO IMMEDIATELY PUT A STOP TO INFORMAL FORCED RETURNS (PUSHBACKS): THEY ENDANGER HUMAN LIVES AND BREACH THE STATE’S INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS  Greek version here Athens, 5 October 2022 The way in which the Ministry of Migration [...]

October 12th, 2022|

Frontex fails to report potential violations of human rights

Press release GREECE: FRONTEX FAILS TO REPORT POTENTIAL VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS Seven civil society organizations from Samos island presented their allegation briefing to MEPs, ahead of LIBE Committee meeting on October 10th. VATHY, October 4th, 2022 - [...]

October 4th, 2022|

Submission to the EU Commission’s ‘Call for Evidence’ regarding Frontex Regulation

I HAVE RIGHTS’ Strategic Litigation Taskforce submitted feedback to the European Commission regarding the founding Regulation of Frontex (Regulation (EU) 2019/1896  on the European Border and Coast Guard/Frontex). In our submission, we focus on Article 46 of the Regulation, which obliges Frontex’s executive director to leave an operational [...]

October 3rd, 2022|

Open Letter to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum

I HAVE RIGHTS, along with 13 organisations, sent a letter to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum in preparation for an upcoming Ministerial Decision that aims to define categories according to which recognised refugees and people granted subsidiary protection would be allowed to stay in the Closed Controlled Access [...]

September 22nd, 2022|

One year since Greece opened new “prison-like” refugee camps, NGOs call for a more humane approach

Prison-like conditions in Closed Controlled Access Centres (CCAC) on Samos and other Greek islands have devastating impacts on asylum seekers. People living in the CCAC on Samos report of anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts as results of detention, isolation and inadequate medical and psychological treatment. Together with 20 other [...]

September 21st, 2022|

Solidarity from Samos for those struggling in Eleonas camp

Cet article peut être lu en français. يمكن قراءة هذه المقالة باللغة العربية. As an organisation based on Samos, I HAVE RIGHTS (IHR) has witnessed to the shift from open camps to Closed Control Access Centres (CCAC), which by design detain, control and dehumanise people seeking safety. An [...]

September 6th, 2022|

Interim measure granted in case concerning denial of emergency medical treatment for two of IHR’s beneficiaries

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has granted an urgent interim measure pursuant to Article 39 of the Rules of Court in the cases C.N. v. Greece (Application no. 32683/22) and R.M. v. Greece (Application no. 32755/22). The cases concerned two people, represented by I HAVE RIGHTS (IHR), [...]

August 22nd, 2022|

Human Rights Defenders on Samos call for Frontex to suspend operations in Greece

Human rights defenders on Samos are demanding the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, also known as Frontex, terminate its operations on the Greek island of Samos. This comes after mounting evidence that Greek authorities and Frontex are violating international law by illegally pushing back to Turkey people seeking [...]

July 18th, 2022|

The Committee of the Rights of the Child Sides with Still I Rise and I HAVE RIGHTS.

In its most recent evaluative report on Greece, released on June 9, 2022, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has demanded that Greece cease its detention of refugee youth and reform its policies towards refugee children, which violate their rights as per the UN [...]

June 23rd, 2022|

Criminalisation of Asylum Seekers: The #Samos2 trial

The criminalisation of asylum seekers is a systematic practice in Greece and is part of a wider effort to prevent people seeking safety in Europe. For the majority of people seeking asylum, there are no direct or regular routes to reach Europe. Instead, people are forced to take irregular [...]

June 1st, 2022|

Unaccompanied minors in the Closed Controlled Access Centre of Samos

Additional Submission to the Committee of the Rights of the Child regarding Greece’s non-compliance with the Convention. 3rd of May 2022 Still I Rise, an international non-profit organisation providing education and safety to refugee children in their Mazi Centre on Samos, and I HAVE RIGHTS., a non-profit refugee [...]

May 3rd, 2022|

The Voice Of The Voiceless – A Community Newsletter

A newsletter from the communities living in Samos “We are people from different communities living in the Closed Controlled Access Centre in Samos, Greece. In this newsletter, we are raising our voices to whoever is concerned against the difficulties we have in the camp of Samos.” "We realised [...]

April 27th, 2022|

Conditions in the Closed Controlled Access Centre of Samos

A Samos Situation Report (March 2022) from the Samos Advocacy Collective and Europe Must Act. In the end of March, the Samos Advocacy Collective and Europe Must Act sent a report to Pietro Bartolo, a member of the European Parliament, to give an overview about the current situation in [...]

April 6th, 2022|

European Commission continues to reject responsibility to uphold fundamental human rights in Samos

[Press release by Europe Must Act] A correspondence between the Samos Advocacy Collective and the European Commission regarding the current movement restrictions of asylum seekers in the Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC) of Samos unveils the inhumanity of the complex asylum system and the worrying lack of accountability from the EU.

March 22nd, 2022|

Our history

The Refugee Law Clinic Berlin (RLCB) started the legal information project on Samos in 2018. The organisation provided legal support in the form of interview preparations, legal information and workshops. As the project on Samos started to grow over the last years, the organisation of RLCB decided to [...]

October 22nd, 2021|

Legal Information


Asylum Procedure in Greece

How does the asylum procedure actually work in Greece? The unprecedented influx of migrants and refugees seeking asylum to Europe beginning in 2015 necessitated major legal and structural changes to asylum law in both EU policy writ large and individual domestic policy within member states. One issue that [...]

November 16th, 2021|Categories: Legal Information|Comments Off on Asylum Procedure in Greece
Go to Top