ELIL - Legal Assistance at EU borders

Dear supporters,

Our work from April to June 2026 has continued to highlight both the resilience of our teams and the growing complexity of asylum systems in Greece and Poland.

From April to June, ELIL supported more than 1,100 people in Greece and over 800 people in Poland. Just over one in five of those assisted were children, including unaccompanied and separated minors. Each case reflects the ongoing need for independent legal support in systems that remain difficult to navigate and, in several respects, increasingly restrictive.

In Greece, arrivals reached 15,547 by the end of June. Our teams in Athens, Thessaloniki, Samos and Lesvos continued to face significant procedural barriers, including repeated interview postponements and serious technical problems with online registration platforms. On 11 June, the Greek Parliament passed law 5307/2026, implementing the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum into national legislation. In the weeks that followed, registration under the new Pact was suspended in several locations as authorities awaited implementation guidance, leaving applicants arriving after 12 June detained for far longer than the law allows. A Joint Ministerial Decision (120961/2026) on free "legal guidance" for asylum seekers was also issued on 30 June, containing provisions the Greek Bar Associations' coordination committee has strongly objected to, including ministry oversight of legal information sessions. We also changed offices in Samos this quarter, and continued to support families, unaccompanied children, and highly vulnerable applicants in detention.

At the Poland-Belarus border, ELIL remains the only organisation with lawyers permanently present. This quarter, we saw deportations carried out in direct contravention of interim measures ordered by the European Court of Human Rights, including a case in which a Sri Lankan national was deported despite an interim measure in place and without being permitted to apply for international protection. We lodged a further application to the ECtHR on behalf of an Afghan national who faced the same unlawful denial of access to the asylum procedure. We continue to face an ongoing lack of response from the Border Guard regarding access to detention centres, an issue affecting multiple organisations, and we piloted a new strategy of engaging Poland's Ombudsman's Office to compel the Border Guard to initiate humanitarian stay proceedings for children.

In Warsaw, we continued supporting Ukrainian refugees through a period of growing uncertainty. Many residents of collective accommodation centres now face displacement as centres close and eligibility rules tighten, while our teams supported clients to access the new CUKR online system for continued temporary protection. We are also helping clients meet a 31 August deadline to verify their identity in person, after which those without valid photographic ID risk losing their temporary protection status and associated rights to residence and employment.

Across both countries, the picture remains one of legal systems under strain, procedural safeguards narrowing, and growing pressure on the people we work with. Yet the impact of independent legal aid continues to be clear: applicants are able to access procedures, unlawful deportations are challenged, and vulnerable individuals, including children, receive support to navigate systems that would otherwise be closed to them.

With your support, we will continue to defend the right to asylum in camps, courts and border areas.

The ELIL Team

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