Athens, 28 March 2023: On 17 March, the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) and the Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR) sent a joint letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of migrants, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe and the European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs.

In their letter, the organisations highlight the long-standing nature of reported pushbacks incidents at the country's borders. Yet they stress that in recent years there has been a paradigm shift vis-à-vis the management of refugee and migrant arrivals, which has led to an exponential increase in the number of relevant complaints.

The Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) cordially invite you to a public debate on Friday, 3 February 2023 at 16.00, at the Ionic Centre 11 Lysiou str., Athens - Plaka, 10556.

Subject: “The concept of “Instrumentalisation” in Migration Management and derogations from asylum rules and standards: fundamental rights and rule of law considerations” 

The event will be joined by distinguished speakers, including public officials, members of independent authorities, academics and representatives of international organisations and of civil society.

For the detailed agenda of the event and related information see here.

For registration, please contact Mrs Mania Driva at +30 210 3800990 (101) or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For those wishing to attend online, please register here

This project has been supported by the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM), a collaborative initiative of the Network of European Foundations (NEF). The sole responsibility for the project lies with the organiser(s) and the content may not necessarily reflect the positions of EPIM, NEF or EPIM’s Partner Foundations.

Anastasia (aka Natasa) Pantazi was born in Athens and is the mother of two adult girls.

She has a degree in Political Science and International Relations (Panteion University) and a Master's degree in Social Anthropology (University of Kent).

She has extensive work experience working in the private sector in Greece and the UK as a development consultant.

Since 2008 she has been working in the NGO sector and has worked in organizations’ dealing with environmental issues, women's volunteering and developmental projects. 

She works at GCR in the Programmes, Fundraising & Communications Department as a project manager and also in developing proposals on issues of inclusion, child protection, volunteer development and training, employment and social entrepreneurship, as well as protection of vulnerable people on issues related to gender based violence, human trafficking, etc.

She has been a member of the Board and S.G  since 2019.

For more information at https://www.linkedin.com/in/natasapantazi/

Nasruddin Nizami comes from Afghanistan.

He arrived in Greece in 2010. He attended educational courses at Deree college.

He was a volunteer for the initiative “Refugees Welcome”.

He has worked as an interpreter, cultural mediator, and case worker at the International Organization of Migration and at the Greek Council for Refugees, where he is currently a member of the board and coordinator in the Reception and Interpretation Unit.

He is also a board member and Community Relations Officer of the non-profit organization “Solomon”.

In the context of HUMANcITY he works as an interpreter and cultural mediator.

He speaks Pashto Dari/Farsi, Urdu, English, and Greek.

Πρόεδρος του ΔΣ του ΕΣΠ από το 2019 έως σήμερα.

Δικηγόρος με ενασχόληση με τα ζητήματα προσφύγων και μεταναστών από τη δεκαετία του 90, υποστηρίζοντας υποθέσεις ενώπιον των δικαστηρίων κάθε βαθμού και δικαιοδοσίας στην Ελλάδα, όσο και στην Ευρώπη.

Εχει διατελέσει Γενικός Γραμματέας Μεταναστευτικής Πολιτικής κατά τα έτη 2015 – 2016 καθώς και έχει υπηρετήσει ως μέλος διάφορων Επιτροπών με αντικείμενο τη Μετανάστευση και το Ασυλο από το 2007 έως σήμερα.

Εχει συνεργασθεί με πολλές οργανώσεις και φορείς της Κοινωνίας των Πολιτών, ενώ ήταν Συντονιστής της Νομικής Υπηρεσίες του ΕΣΠ κατά τα έτη 2017-2019.

Εχει σπουδάσει Κοινωνιολογία στην Πάντειο Σχολή και Νομική στο Πανεπιστήμιο της Αθήνας.

Lefteris Papagiannakis was born in France in 1971.

He studied public law in the University of Lille II and holds an MA in European Community Law and International Economy.

He worked in the European Parliament as a parliamentary assistant, on the education of children of the Muslim minority in Greece, as a legal counselor for the
political party Ecologists Green and the Special Secretariat on environmental inspection.

He was elected in the municipal council of Athens in 9/2014 and named Vice Mayor on Migrant and Refugee Affairs (3/2016-8/2019).

He was the President of the Council for the Integration of Migrants of the Municipality of Athens (2014 – 2019).

He was Chair of the working group Migration and Integration of the Eurocities Network (2017-2019), Vice President for Refugee Issues of ECCAR (European Coalition of Cities against Racism 2017-2019).

Since 2017 he is a member of the Board of the Hellenic League for Human Rights.

From 11/2019 – 9/2021 he was the Head of Advocacy, Policy and Research for SolidarityNow.

He is a member of the advisory board of We Need Books Athens’ first multilingual lending library and multicultural center.

He is a member of the City Initiative on Migrants with Irregular Status in Europe

3 Νοεμβρίου 2022 

Το Δίκτυο Συνηγορίας για τα Δικαιώματα του Παιδιού (Child Rights Advocacy Network – CRAN), και οι οργανώσεις της Κοινωνίας των Πολιτών που το αποτελούν έχουν εδώ και χρόνια διαπιστώσει και επισημάνει τη συστημική έλλειψη ενός καθεστώτος προστασίας που να εγγυάται την άνευ διακρίσεων προστασία όλων  των ασυνόδευτων παιδιών.Ως αποτέλεσμα αυτού του κενού, τα παιδιά δεν έχουν τρόπο να λάβουν τα απαραίτητα νομιμοποιητικά έγγραφα που απαιτούνται για την πρόσβαση στα δικαιώματά τους, με αποτέλεσμα  να παραμένουν εκτεθειμένα σε  σειρά προβλημάτων.