Decision No. 572/2003 of the Committee of Injunctions of the Council of State *

Summary of Facts: The Committee set up by virtue of art. 3 para. 5 of P.D. 61/1999 (Asylum Appeals Board) espoused the relevant claim of Mr. Y.M., asylum seeker from Afghanistan and advised, by majority, in favor of the applicant's request to be recognized as a refugee. The Minister of Public Order finally rejected, by a decision dated 10.7.2002, the said application and gave the applicant a 3-month period to leave voluntarily the country. Mr. Y. M. applied to the Council of State and requested to annul the negative decision and to receive provisional judicial protection.

Reasoning and decision: The Injunctions' Committee, taking into account the opinion of the Committee set up by virtue of art. 3 para. 8 of P.D. 61/99 to the Minister of Public Order, which, by majority, advised in favor of granting the refugee status to the applicant, considered that any measure taken to deport the applicant from Greece would cause irremediable damage to this latter, in case his pending application to annul the said act succeeded, because it would have put his freedom and security in danger.

By applying article 59 para. 8 of P.D. 18/1989, as replaced by article 36 of L. 2721/1999, and by application of article 2 para. 7 of P.D. 61/1999 which stipulates that persons who have applied for international protection on the grounds of the 28.7.1951 Geneva Convention, are given the relevant special document which allows beneficiaries the right to work, in order to cover their immediate needs and, also, if they fulfil certain additional conditions, the right to receive free medical care, the Injunctions' Committee decides that the Administration should not proceed to withhold the asylum applicant's special card or, in case it had already done so, it should return it to the applicant, so that the applicant may return completely to the status under which he was before the ministerial decision under review rejected his application.

The Injunctions' Committee ordered the Administration to refrain, till a final decision on the said pending application to annul is issued by the Council of State, from any action taken exclusively on the grounds of the Ministerial decision, rejecting the applicant's asylum application, under review, which would result to the application having to forcibly leave Greece.

* Editor's note. See relevant case law of the Injunctions Committee in YRAL 2000, p. 33, decision 31/2000, with a commentary on the measures of provisional judicial protection that may order the Council of State, following the modifications introduced by L. 2721/1999.