In a joint statement, the two organisations criticised the move as a refusal to respect the court’s decision, saying:

“With the latest decision, published on 9 April 2025, after the result of the Court’s deliberation on the annulment of the previous ministerial decision had become known, the responsible Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of Migration and Asylum insisted on the same designation with the aim, according to a press release from the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, of rejecting the asylum applications of these individuals as inadmissible, without examining the substance of their claims, and returning them to Turkey.“

They point to a recent ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union and stress that:

“As long as the evidence in the file shows that Turkey has generally suspended the readmission of applicants for international protection to its territory since March 2020, the competent Greek authorities […] cannot reject applications for international protection as inadmissible […] on the grounds that Turkey is a safe third country.”

ESP and RSA also question the credibility of the updated recommendation underpinning the new decision:

“The latest decision is based on a new recommendation by the Director of the Asylum Service, which selectively incorporates information sources previously cited in the earlier recommendation found inadequate by the Court, now omitting references that clearly cannot support the designation of Turkey as a safe third country.”

They further criticise the failure to take into account widely available and credible information:

“The latest recommendation also fails to consider crucial, reliable and well-known sources of information regarding Turkey’s domestic practices in the field of refugee protection and human rights, which contradict the designation. Thus, it disregards condemnatory decisions against Turkey by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), reports by UN bodies and resolutions of the European Parliament, as well as key excerpts even from the sources it explicitly cites.”

Finally, the organisations warn of the real-life consequences for people seeking protection:

“We believe that this new ministerial decision will also be annulled by the Council of State, in order to prevent a significant number of individuals who clearly require international protection (prima facie refugees), including families with children and particularly vulnerable people, from being left in prolonged legal uncertainty, without protection or access to basic reception conditions. In any case, they cannot be removed from our country.”

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