Working for an organisation registered in the “NGO Registry” of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum becomes a punishable offence with the proposed changes to Articles 24 and 25 of the Migration Code.

After five years of constant recommendations from the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the UN to put an end to arbitrary restrictions on the work of civil society organisations supporting refugees and migrants, the Ministry continues to target the organisations deemed inconvenient solely for carrying out their work.

The mere membership of an organisation registered in the NGO Registry elevates misdemeanours such as facilitation of illegal stay, or refusal to hand a travel document, to felonies punishable by up to ten years’ imprisonment and fines of tens of thousands of euros. It is thus considered an aggravating circumstance sufficient to reclassify the offence as a felony, in an affront to fundamental principles of criminal policy and legislation. Mere criminal prosecution suffices for removal of the organisation from the Registry.

These provisions are intended to intimidate civil society. They are introduced only a few months after the Minister of Migration and Asylum made threats against the legal representatives of people who arrived in Crete during the unlawful three-month asylum ban and were protected from deportation by interim measures of the European Court of Human Rights. These attacks were immediately condemned by international and national institutions, yet the competent Minister refuses to retract them.

For the undersigned organisations, this attempt is unjust, unlawful, and unreasonable. We call for the immediate withdrawal of these provisions.

The undersigned organisations:

  1. ART HUB Athens
  2. Association of Greek Conscientious Objectors
  3. Association of Greek Small- and Medium CSOs
  4. Boat Refugee Foundation
  5. Centre Diotima
  6. Changemakers Lab
  7. Civil Society Alliance Greece
  8. Collective Aid
  9. Community Peacemaker Teams-Aegean Migrant Solidarity
  10. Doctors of the World – Greek Delegation
  11. ECHO100PLUS
  12. Emfasis Non-Profit
  13. EmpowerVan
  14. Equal Legal Aid (ELA)
  15. Equal Rights Beyond Borders
  16. FemArtAct
  17. Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid
  18. Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
  19. Greek Forum of Migrants
  20. Greek Forum of Refugees
  21. Greek Helsinki Monitor
  22. Greek Housing Network
  23. Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR)
  24. HIAS Greece
  25. HIGGS
  26. The HOME Project
  27. Human Rights Legal Project
  28. I Have Rights
  29. Inter Alia
  30. Intereuropean Human Aid Association 
  31. InterMediaKT
  32. INTERSOS HELLAS
  33. Irida Women’s Center
  34. iSea
  35. Legal Centre Lesvos
  36. Mazí Housing
  37. Médecins Sans Frontières Greece
  38. Melissa Network of Migrant Women in Greece
  39. Mobile Info Team
  40. Nimertis Action Art
  41. Northern Lights Aid
  42. PΕkAmeA
  43. Police Violence Observatory – Copwatch GR
  44. PRAKSIS
  45. Project Armonia
  46. Reading to the Others 
  47. Refugee Support Aegean (RSA)
  48. Safe Passage International Greece
  49. Samos Volunteers
  50. SHE – Society for Help and Empowerment
  51. Symbiosis-Council of Europe School of Political Studies in Greece
  52. Symplexis
  53. Velos Youth
  54. VIOZO – Greek Union of Consumers
  55. Women’s Self Defence Group
  56. Vouliwatch