Asylum: End of large scale pre-registration on mainland Greece

The Asylum Service announces that the operation to pre-register applications for international protection on mainland Greece, through the dedicated registration centres that were temporarily set up, has now come to an end.

Those who have not been able to pre-register yet and wish to apply for asylum can do so, preferably by obtaining a registration appointment through Skype.  Given that the vast majority of those who wish to pre-register have done so by now, access to the Skype system should function more efficiently.

Those who have been already pre-registered will receive soon a text message (SMS) with the date and location for their next appointment at the Asylum Service to lodge their asylum claim, including for family reunification or relocation.

The pre-registration exercise, supported financially by the European Commission, was launched on 8 June 2016 by the Greek Asylum Service, and implemented with the help of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). Through this large-scale operation, thousands of persons were provided with asylum seeker cards, allowing them to reside legally in Greece and have the right to access health and education services. A detailed statistical report, based on the findings of the pre-registration exercise, will be released soon.

Source: Sayed Parwez Ahmadi, 36, and his six-year-old daughter wait at the Hungarian transit zone where they have now been for over two weeks. © UNHCR/Zsolt Balla