Revolving-Door Detention

Rejected asylum seekers and undocumented migrants who do not seek asylum are often trapped in a bureaucratic maze. Rather than initiate a fair deportation proceeding, including the right to an appeal before a court or tribunal, the Greek authorities’ usual practice is to detain migrants and, upon release from detention, issue a paper ordering them to leave the country within 30 days. This order, commonly known as the “white paper,” is written only in Greek, a language few of its recipients understand. 

The white paper seems to carry little weight as an enforcement document; individuals who fail to comply with the “deadline” are simply issued another white paper.

If they are caught trying to leave Greece, though, since they lack travel documents, they are re-arrested, detained, and issued another white paper ordering them to leave the country within 30 days. This happens repeatedly. 

Efthalia Pappa, program supervisor of the Ecumenical Program for Refugees, told Human Rights Watch, “The 30-day paper is a paradox: It tells the person to leave the country and then the police arrest that same person for trying to leave the country.”