The updated AIDA Country Report on Greece provides a detailed overview on legislative and practice-related developments in asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention of asylum applicants and content of international protection in 2024. It is accompanied by two annexes: one which provides an overview of temporary protection and the other which includes the Greek authorities’ comments on the content of the report.
A number of key developments drawn from the overview of the main changes that have taken place since the publication of the update on 2023 are set out below.
(A) International protection
Asylum procedure
- Statistics: There were 62,119 irregular arrivals in Greece in 2024. This represented a 14.2% increase from 2023. 54,417 people arrived by sea (30.9% increase from 2023) and almost one third of them were children. At least 125 people who tried to travel to Greece by sea were reported dead or missing. The Asylum Service received 73,714 applications (15% increase from 2023) and issued 50,117 in-merit decisions. The recognition rate was 71.6% (39,271 decisions granting refugee status and 296 granting subsidiary protection). By the end of 2024, 26,623 applications were pending at first instance and 1,641 at second instance (11% decrease from 2023). At second instance, 7% of the decisions by the Independent Appeals Committees were negative (6.8% in-merit recognition rate for refugee status and 1.3% for subsidiary protection). 4,588 appeals were rejected as inadmissible.
- Pushbacks: Allegations of pushbacks continued to be reported in 2024. In January 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) condemned Greece for systematic pushbacks from the Evros region to Türkiye. In addition, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency’s (Frontex) fundamental rights officer reiterated recommendations from July 2023 regarding the suspension of the agency’s operations in Greece due to strong indications of serious fundamental rights violations.
- Access to the asylum procedure:Access to asylum on the mainland remained problematic in 2024 due to issues with the online platform for booking appointments to lodge asylum applications, delays in scheduling registration appointments, the discontinuation of interpretation services halfway through the year and a lack of legal assistance and interpretation in pre-removal detention centres (PRDC). In July 2025, the Hellenic Parliament introduced a three-month suspension on the submission of asylum applications by people arriving in Greece irregularly by sea from North Africa.
- Safe third country inadmissibility: 3,222 inadmissibility decisions were issued (at both first and second instance) under the ‘Safe Third Country’ (STC) concept in 2024. In October, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled that EU member states could not reject an asylum application as inadmissible on the basis of the STC concept if the applicant would not be (re)admitted. In February 2025, the Greek Council of State annulled the joint ministerial decision (JMD) designating Türkiye as an STC. However, in April, the Greek government issued a new JMD re-designating Türkiye as an STC. A judicial review has been lodged against the decision.
- Second instance procedure: In December 2024, the Council of State ruled that the one-member composition of the Independent Appeals Committees was unconstitutional.
Reception conditions
- Statistics: The Reception and Identification Service registered 65,072 people in 2024. 21.2% of them were deemed to be vulnerable.
- Delays in accessing reception: Delays in accessing reception due to chronic delays in accessing asylum on the mainland continued to be reported in 2024.
- Provision of the financial allowance: In May 2024, the provision of cash assistance was interrupted for a period of 10 months. This occurred for a second time at the end of June 2025 and provision is not expected to expected to resume before the end of the year.
- Restrictions on freedom of movement: People who were subject to the EU-Turkey Statement and the Fast-Track Border Procedure continued to be subject to a ‘geographical restriction’ in 2024. This limited their freedom of movement to the island on which they had arrived.
- Living conditions in the mainland: Concerns about living conditions in camps on the mainland continued throughout 2024 and 2025. They were focused on detention-like environments, critical gaps in essential services, staffing shortages and isolation due to their remote locations. Destitution and homelessness continued outside the camps.
- Reception conditions in the islands: In 2024, reports by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) and the Greek National Commission for Human Rights raised concerns about reception conditions in the centres on the Greek islands. These included, inter alia, shortcomings in legal assistance, healthcare provision, vulnerability assessments and interpretation services, and a lack of coverage of applicants’ basic reception and protection needs. In October 2024, the ECtHR condemned Greece for the treatment of unaccompanied minors in Samos.
- Access to education: A study on the 2023-2024 school year found that very few unaccompanied minors were attending school, even if they had been enrolled.
Detention of asylum applicants
- Detention statistics: 5,167 asylum applicants were detained in PRDCs in 2024. Applicants continued to be de facto detained for up to 25 days upon their presentation at registration facilities.
- Grounds for detention: People whose asylum applications were rejected as inadmissible on the basis of the STC concept continued to be detained in 2024, despite the lack of reasonable prospect of their readmission to Türkiye. The detention of people who had asked for asylum online by booking an appointment in order to present themselves before authorities was ruled unlawful in 2024. In addition, people who arrived in locations without reception and identification centres or closed controlled access centres were frequently subject to automatic detention in mainland PRDCs instead of undergoing reception and identification procedures. Other forms of de facto detention such as pending transfer to reception and identification centres, in the Athens Airport transit zone and in cases of alleged pushbacks all continued in 2024.
- Places of detention: At the end of 2024, there were seven active PRDCs in Greece, with a combined capacity of 3,336 places. In addition, police stations and other holding facilities were also used for prolonged migration detention, despite the ECtHR finding against this practice.
- Detention of vulnerable asylum applicants: People whose vulnerabilities had not been considered and at least 385 unaccompanied minors were detained in 2024.
- Insufficient information provision and legal advice: The CPT highlighted that the lack of information provision and legal aid in detention remained a structural issue in 2024.
- Lack of an effective appeal mechanism: Only 0.43% of ex officio judicial review decisions that were issued during the first half of 2024 resulted in a rejection of the prolongation of detention. In October 2024, the ECtHR again condemned Greece for the lack of an effective judicial examination of objections against detention.
Content of international protection
- Renewal of residence permits: Delays in the renewal of beneficiaries’ residence permits continued in 2024. However, they were shorter than in previous years. During the three to six months that beneficiaries had to wait, they could find themselves without access to the labour market, social security and welfare, or healthcare.
- Access to travel documents: In 2024, the Council of State found the option of denying a travel document for ‘compelling reasons of national security or public order’ too vague and, therefore, unlawful.
- Housing and basic subsistence: The end of the HELIOS programme in November 2024 left thousands of beneficiaries at an increased risk of homelessness.
- Limited access to rights due to issues obtaining a social security number: Beneficiaries’ access to various rights has been severely hindered by the obstacles they have encountered in trying to activate their social security numbers (AMKA). The AMKA is required to access homeless shelters, receive social welfare benefits and access healthcare. However, in order to activate it, beneficiaries have to present a valid travel document, a valid residence permit and, since April 2024, proof of employment or self-employment.
(B) Temporary protection
- Statistics: As of December 2024, 33,035 applications for temporary protection had been pre-registered by the Asylum Service.
- Vulnerability identification: With the exception of checks of indicators of trafficking in human beings, there is no specific procedure for the identification of vulnerable applicants or beneficiaries.
- Access to asylum: Beneficiaries of temporary protection can apply for international protection without having their temporary protection residence permit withdrawn. 90 Ukrainian nationals applied for international protection in Greece in 2024.
The full report is available here, the annex on temporary protection is available here and the annex containing the Greek authorities’ comments is available here.
For more information about the AIDA database or to read other AIDA reports, please visit the AIDA website.