Executive Director European Union Agency for Asylum

 

Dear Ms X,

I refer to my Office’s letter of 19 February 2024 in which we notified the EUAA of having received a complaint from two civil society organisations, I Have Rights and Avocats Sans Frontières France.

The complaint concerns how the EUAA carries out interviews with asylum seekers on Samos, as well as the alleged lack of investigation into related complaints made by applicants or by their representatives. The complainants are also more broadly concerned with how the EUAA addresses and investigates allegations of fundamental rights violations committed by its staff or by a host Member State during a country operation.

On 18 April 2024, following the opening of my inquiry, the EUAA replied to the complainants’ letters of November 2022 and June 2023, and addressed other elements raised in their complaint. Thank you for the good cooperation to date.

In their reply of 28 May 2024, which you have also received, the complainants have expressed their dissatisfaction with the EUAA’s reply. I have therefore decided to pursue my inquiry into the matter.

As a first step, I have decided that it is necessary for my inquiry team to inspect the following documents:

• The file of the two complaints (28.11.2022 and 13.06.2023), including internal EUAA exchanges in relation to these complaints and all documents related to the steps that the EUAA has described in its reply to the complainants;[1]
• Monthly reports from the Samos Field Support Officer(s), Team Leader(s), and caseworkers under EL-AS 1.1 of the EUAA-Greece Operational Plan,[2] from October 2022 to September 2023;
• The Greek training plans for 2022, 2023, and 2024, and the attendance of Samos caseworkers for these years;
• The files of the complaints mechanism and of the escalation mechanism, including an overview of the timeline for setting up both mechanisms;
• Reports of possible Code of Conduct violations received by the EUAA as regards Samos between June 2022 and March 2024; as well as any other reports that triggered a discussion on a possible suspension or termination of activities in Samos (independently of the escalation mechanism) over the same time period. 

I would appreciate it if the EUAA could provide the documents in question, preferably in electronic format, by 12 August 2024.[3] Information or documents that your institution considers to be confidential will not be disclosed to the complainant or any other person without the prior agreement of the EUAA. [4]

Following the inspection of documents, a meeting between my inquiry team and the relevant representatives of the EUAA might be necessary to discuss the case.

The responsible inquiries officer is Ms Amandine Le Bellec.

Yours sincerely,

Emily O'Reilly
European Ombudsman

Strasbourg, 11/07/2024

 

[1] We understand from the EUAA reply that this includes: the 2022 Quality Feedback Report and 2023 vulnerability-related Quality Feedback Report, feedback given to Samos caseworkers (for instance through Quality Assurance Tools); minutes of the monthly meetings of EUAA Team Leaders and GAS Quality Focal Points and documents shared as part of these meetings from November 2022 to March 2024; all documents related to the participation of Samos caseworkers in coaching sessions (including the rationale for organising these sessions and their outcome); all documents related to the shadowing exercise that took place on Samos in June 2023 (including any report that followed); all documents related to the participation of the Samos Team Leader in workshops and information subsequently shared with the Samos team; GAS instructions as regards pushbacks and its new complaints mechanism; EUAA instructions as regards reporting of fundamental rights violations, the reports received from caseworkers since then, and the related overviews provided to GAS, the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum FRO, and the EUAA FRO until March 2024. Please refer to p.10-12 of the reply of the EUAA for further details.

[2] Available at: https://euaa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/EL_OP_amendment_3_FINAL.pdf

[3] Should your staff have any queries or difficulties in retrieving and sharing the requested documents with my Office within the indicated deadline, please contact the responsible inquiries officer whose contact details are indicated in this letter.

[4] Please clearly mark such material ‘Confidential’. Encrypted emails can be sent to our dedicated mailbox. Information and documents of this kind will be deleted from the European Ombudsman’s files shortly after the inquiry has ended.