Since the September 2025 law (Law 5226/2025) criminalizing undocumented stay came into force, a troubling pattern has emerged in Lesvos: people are being arrested when they attend scheduled appointments to receive their asylum appeal decisions. While some people are notified by email, others are instructed to appear in person at the Asylum Office outside Mytilene, only to face arrest immediately upon receiving a negative decision.
When an appeal is rejected, the Greek authorities treat this as a “final decision.” The individual is immediately classified as undocumented and therefore subject to detention for the purpose of deportation. This occurs despite the fact that people have the right to challenge the decision before the administrative court. Under Greek law, however, deportation may proceed while that appeal is pending, unless a court specifically suspends the removal order.
Although this legal framework predates the September 2025 criminal amendments, for the past six years – ever since deportations to Turkey were halted – receiving a negative decision did not normally result in detention, at least on Lesvos island. In recent months, however, this practice has changed.
Several individuals have now been arrested directly inside the Asylum Office after receiving a negative appeal decision. The procedure typically unfolds as follows:
- Immediately after informing the individual of the rejection, the Asylum Office contacts the police.
- The individual is prevented from leaving the premises.
- They remain under supervision inside the office until police arrive.
- Police then take the individual into custody and transfer them to the police station.
- At the station, they are charged with “illegal stay” in Greece.
For many of us, these arrests bring back memories of Moria Camp before it was destroyed in the September 2020 fires. During that period the same practice was followed, except after arrest, people were transferred to the Pre-Removal Detention Centre (PROKEKA) inside Moria camp, and faced imminent deportation to Turkey.
When PROKEKA in Moria was in use, people frequently reacted with panic and desperation upon learning of their rejection and impending detention or deportation. We received reports and witnessed incidents of people attempting to flee or climb the fences surrounding the facility. These situations frequently escalated into confrontations, and in many cases police and security officers used force against those protesting their detention.
While deportation is no longer an imminent threat for most people (Turkey no longer accepts deportations of people who entered Greece via Turkey, and Greece only has bilateral agreements with a few countries), rejected asylum seekers are now instead criminally prosecuted. They face charges of “illegal stay” solely because their asylum claims were denied.
Those arrested are brought to trial within a few days and face potential sentences of two to five years’ imprisonment in addition to up to two years ‘administrative’ detention (i.e. detention without criminal charges), simply for being undocumented.
Under Greece’s accelerated criminal procedure, which applies when a person is arrested within 48 hours of allegedly committing a crime, trial must take place within 48 hours of arrest, with a maximum postponement of three days. Although people have the right to a state appointed lawyer in this accelerated criminal procedure, for those who do not speak Greek this can mean there is not enough time to find a translator, gather evidence, and prepare a defense. In practice, the right to a lawyer risks becoming purely formal rather than effective.
Post-Arrest Procedures and the Illusion of “Choice”
Under Greek migration and asylum law, individuals who receive a final negative decision may have the right to leave the country voluntarily.
In practice, however, people are not given this option prior to arrest. Instead, once brought to trial on criminal charges of illegal stay, “voluntary” departure from Greece to their home country is given as an option not to avoid conviction, but only to avoid a prison sentence after conviction.
Even then, this is not a meaningful choice. People who have been arrested and face imprisonment and potential deportation are often understandably in a state of significant psychological vulnerability. They have already undertaken dangerous journeys and faced serious risks in order to migrate to Greece. Being asked to choose between returning to the place they have fled or serving a two-to-five-year prison sentence for being undocumented is, in reality, no choice at all.
Psychological Impact
Receiving a negative asylum decision is already distressing: there is the risk of detention and deportation, but also having one’s personal history and identity rejected by the authorities can be devastating and deeply destabilizing for someone who has fled persecution because of who they are.
The rushed timeframe in which people must decide whether or not to accept imprisonment or ‘voluntarily’ return to their home country further compounds this distress. In such circumstances, individuals may not be in a stable mental or emotional state to fully understand the consequences of their decisions, access legal advice (particularly with interpretation), or exercise their procedural rights effectively.
One person reported to LCL that he was arrested on a Friday at the Pagani asylum office when he received his negative decision, detained in the Mytilene police station over the weekend, and brought to trial on a Monday. At trial, he was appointed a lawyer with whom he could not communicate. That same day, he was convicted of illegal stay in proceedings involving a court-appointed interpreter whom he stated he could not understand. He was sentenced to 22 months’ imprisonment (reduced from two years due to mitigating circumstances) and fined €5,000.
Although the prison sentence was suspended on the condition that he leave the country, he was not provided the opportunity to depart. Instead, he was placed in administrative detention on the basis that he lacked legal status.
This case illustrates the broader pattern: individuals are confronted simultaneously with overlapping administrative and criminal procedures, each carrying severe consequences. They must process rejection, arrest, prosecution, and the threat of detention or removal all at once, without sufficient time, clarity, or support to make informed decisions about their future.
If the situation appears legally complex, it is because it is. But for the individuals experiencing it, the reality is simpler: a visit to collect an asylum decision can now lead directly to arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment. The criminalization of undocumented status following an asylum rejection transforms an administrative outcome into a punitive one, one that risks further dehumanising an already targeted and discriminated population.
#NoHumanIsIllegal #MigrationIsARight