The secondary refugee committee issued its first decision on Thursday following an appeal filed by a Syrian refugee stranded on the Greek island of Lesvos, who was originally denied asylum and would have to return to Turkey.

The committee ruled that Turkey is not a safe third country, so the asylum application must be considered again with more details and information, a process that will be extremely time consuming, as Kathimerini newspaper reports.

The Asylum Service on Lesvos has examined 174 asylum applications that have been submitted, with 100 of them being accepted. The rest of the refugees, whose applications were rejected, have filed an appeal to the secondary committee to reconsider their application.

It is almost certain that the decision which considers Turkey not to be a safe third country for Syrian refugees will be followed by many similar decisions leading to a very time-consuming process of examining the asylum applications. In the meantime, the situation on the islands is suffocating, with Chios police chief resigning over the refugee problem.