The plenary session of the Council of State (CoS), by majority vote, ruled in a closed-door session that the joint decision of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Migration & Asylum, which designated Turkey as a safe third country, lacked sufficient justification and documentation. This announcement was made by the President of the Supreme Administrative Court, Michalis Pikramenos.

Since Turkey does not currently accept the return of asylum seekers to its territory, applications for international protection from individuals originating from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Somalia cannot be rejected as inadmissible by Greek authorities. Instead, they must be reviewed on their merits.

As a result, asylum seekers from these five countries will no longer be sent back to Turkey but will have their cases individually assessed. This means that applicants for international protection will either remain in Greece or be sent back to their country of origin.

The plenary session of the CoS reviewed five cases that were discussed on February 7, 2025. These cases involved:

a) The establishment of a national list of safe third countries, which included Turkey as a safe third country for asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Somalia.

b) Decisions by Independent Appeal Committees that rejected asylum applications as inadmissible based on Turkey’s designation as a safe third country.

The CoS ruled by majority vote that the supporting documents for the joint ministerial decision (No. 538595/12.12.2023) did not sufficiently assess the criteria set forth in Article 91 of Law 4939/2022 to justify classifying Turkey as a safe third country for these categories of foreign nationals. The court found that the recommendation from the head of the Asylum Service merely cited international sources without specifically evaluating the information in relation to the legal criteria required.

For this reason, the CoS decided that the joint ministerial decision (No. 538595/12.12.2023) should be annulled regarding Turkey’s designation as a safe third country for asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Somalia.

Furthermore, the CoS unanimously ruled that individual decisions by Independent Appeal Committees, which rejected asylum applications from Afghan nationals on the grounds that they had entered Greece via Turkey, must also be annulled.

The court emphasized that Turkey has generally suspended the readmission of asylum seekers to its territory since March 2020. Therefore, as affirmed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in its ruling of October 4, 2024, Greek authorities cannot reject applications for international protection as inadmissible solely on the basis that Turkey is considered a safe third country.